When I first heard Adna, I thought “Wow, this is good.” When I found out that she was only 19 and self produced and recorded her album in 5 days I was amazed. She gives life to her music through heart driven lyrics and soothing melodies. If you’re a fan of First Aid Kit, think of this as their melancholy cousin.
Below is her song “Prettiest”, will make you laugh or cry. You decide.
I posted this to my personal Facebook account a few days ago, but I couldn’t resist posting it here. I know that David Lynch is not Swedish but Lykke is. What can I say about this song other than two geniuses got together and gave birth to something beautiful. Something so simplistic and soft. The song was released last year on Lynch’s second studio album The Big Dream. Shot in a single shot on the dashboard of a car traveling through an empty desert the video exemplifies Lynch’s perception of infinite space and time/
The song is reminiscent of Julee Cruise’s songs in Twin Peaks. Which I highly recommend looking up if you haven’t heard them already.
Sit back, relax and let them take you through an atmospheric dawn to dusk journey through the desert.
I had posted Tiger Forest Cat a couple weeks ago which is the solo project of Syket’s drummer. I feel both bands are quite different, I’m having trouble picking who I prefer. If had to choose right now, I think I’d prefer Syket. I am not sure if it’s the moody tune, or the exquisite lyrics. The one thing I am sure of is this song hit the spot.
If you are a fan of the Cocteau Twins, you will love this or at least I hope you will. Ethereal vocals to whisk you away into another dream like state. Varsågod!
I hope you will go into this weekend dancing to this song. Fun dance worthy beats, peppy guitar. It’s worthy of a happy Friday post. So raise a glass and dance!
Using this Throwback Thursday as a dedication to one of my favorite bands. I first heard Kent on a compilation album I won’t at the Los Angeles County Fair when one of the KROQ DJ’s challenged me to remove my shoelaces in 30 secs. I tend to attach music to memories, so this is the memory I will cherish that brought Kent into my life. So 15 year old me goes home and puts on the CD. The first song was Blur’s Beetlebum and then some other crap music and this Kent song…
I eventually went out and bought their full record, Isola. This record has so many memories wrapped around it of late teens and early 20s. And I can’t think of many albums that I can listen to from start to finish. But I do have my favorites. This was a very tough choice but I’ve narrowed it down to two.
Velvet:
One of the most lyrically beautiful songs I have heard, 747 (We Ran Out of Time)
Another little known fact, unless you have followed from the beginning. Before I thought of the name Swedes are Sweet, the blog was called Things She Said. After this song:
So those of you who are familiar with Kent, know that they release two albums in both Swedish and English. The memory attached to their album Hagnesta Hill will be hearing it for the first time in Swedish. I didn’t do this intentionally, but my awesome brother had worked for a record distributor so I had him order me a bunch of CDs. One being Hagnesta Hill, well when it arrived it was the Swedish version. I didn’t care, I put that on and day dreamed that I knew what the songs were about. In those days, YouTube did not exist and music wasn’t as readily available as it is now. You had to search for it. I remember the day I walked into Rhino Records in Claremont, walked over to Kent and found Hagnesta Hill in English. I probably squealed as any music lover would finding a treasure they’ve been looking for. Once I heard the album in English, it quickly moved it’s way into my top albums of all time. Below are my favorites from it. The lyrics are amazing, beautiful and heartfelt.
Stay With Me:
Rollercoaster:
And lastly, one of my “theme songs” Stop Me June:
My main thing with this blog is to feature Swedish bands who write English songs, so I will stop featuring their music here. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give their Swedish stuff a try. I am sure the lyrics are as beautiful and the songs are as touching as these two albums. Please Kent translate more songs, or maybe I need to actually use that Swedish Rosetta Stone copy I have. Good luck with that! 😉
This blog is dedicated to Marie Lieko Yonezawa Solberg
I was telling my friend Erica how I wanted to start looking for things that were not electro pop. It has become a little frustrating. So I went on a hunt. I found Tross. I was intrigued, so I clicked and I have to say I really enjoyed this. Not sure exactly how to classify it. Interesting, psychedelic, surfy rock!
With their latest album being released yesterday, The Forest and The Trees are giving me happy fuzzy warm feelings. Missions is the only song available in the United States on Spotify at the moment but I am excited to hunt down the rest of the album. Missions is a a great start and I have probably listened to it ten times already. This dreamy pop fest is completed with beautiful lyrics and sweet vocals. Enjoy!
Members of Swedish indie pop bands have come together to create something lovely. Amason consists of Amanda Hollingby Matsson, Pontus Winnberg, Petter Winnberg from Little Majorette , Gustav Ejstes from Dungen and Nils Tornqvist. They were also nominated in the Swedish 2014 Grammys for best newcomer. I absolutely love it!
Another one recommended by Andrew, perfect weekend music! Her album comes out this coming Monday.(hopefully) It’s available in Sweden now. Guess I need to do some insider trading with my friend who lives in Jönköping.