Sweden!

Here's a new playlist of some - all right, most - of my favourite Swedish songs from seven years of this blog. I've put together similar ones on Spotify in the past but, taking a leaf out of Xanthi's book, I've now switched to 8 tracks. Whereas with Spotify you're limited slightly by the fact that i) you can only use tracks that are available in Spotify's own library, and ii) not everyone has a Spotify account - with 8 tracks you can include any track on your computer in your playlist. Infinitely preferable.

Anyway, boring waffle over. Hope you like the mix. I can't say it's a definitive list of favourites as I forgot to include any Jens Lekman, for starters; or the 'Puck' version of Carnival by the Cardigans; or any of The Sweptaways' Christmas singles. But it's close!

1 Will You Love Me In The Morning? - Acid House Kings featuring Magnus Carlson

2 Rise & Shine - The Cardigans

3 Pamplona - Pelle Carlberg

4 Trumpets & Violins - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

5 Cry No More Tears - Sweet Chariots

6 Make A Right At Jordfallsmotet - Agent Simple

7 Segerns Sötma - Lustans Lakejer

8 On The Radio - The Concretes

9 Arjeplog - Hello Saferide

10 Once I Was A Serene Teenage Child - Frida Hyvönen

11 Summer Of Speed - Andreas Mattsson

12 Starfriend - Freewheel

13 Histrionics - Popsicle

14 Never Killed Anyone - The Wannadies

15 My Cousin The Psychopath - Waterbug

16 At School - Brainpool

17 This Is The Year - Marit Bergman

18 Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward - The Sweptaways

19 Hitten - Those Dancing Days

20 London - Frida Hyvönen

21 Whims and Fancies - Kissing Mirrors

22 Cup Noodle Song - Pineforest Crunch

23 All I Want Is What I Had - Sweet Chariots

24 I Was Definitely Made For These Times - Hello Saferide

25 Rent A Wreck - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

26 And I Found This Boy - Maia Hirasawa

27 Shiver Gone - Popundret

28 Young & Hairy - Elias & The Wizzkids

29 Somebody Has To Be Me - Mutts

30 Tee Vee Star - Action Biker

31 Teenager - The Drowners

32 Missing You - Club 8

33 Ten - Popsicle

34 If You Were Here - Kent

35 It Only Takes A Flashlight To Create A Monster - The Bear Quartet

36 One Nation Under A Gloom - Swissair

37 Reflected - Ronderlin

38 Maneater - Nixon and Action Biker

39 Water - Eggstone

40 Love Is Dead - The Wannadies

The boys of summer

A recently-discovered Swedish indiepop earworm from 1993 today, Waiting For The Summer by Stevepops. Just when I think I've got this whole mid-90s Swindie thing covered, something exciting and new (or new to me) comes along to surprise and delight in equal measure. This are ace!



Stevepops - Waiting For The Summer mp3

Song of the Day

Like most bands I've been enamoured with over the years, I'll have written about Brainpool here before - but I don't think I've featured their 1995 single In A Box To You - until now. If The Wannadies were The Beatles of Swindie and Popsicle The Kinks, then Brainpool were at the very least The Rolling Stones. Or something. Anyway, if it's joyous, life-affirming power-pop with lots of fa-fa-fas you're after, look no further!



Brainpool - In A Box To You mp3

Swede surrender

Anyone who's read any (well, most) of my previous contributions to this blog will know that I am more than a tad taken by this Swedish indiepop malarkey, and need no second - or indeed first - invitation to blather on about it.

In fact, such is my infatuation with all things 'Swindie' that I've probably said all I have to say on most of my favourite Swedish acts on Too Much Apple Pie, over the past few years. But this doesn't, of course, stop the music itself being great. So what I thought I'd do now, like, is to have a dedicated 'Swedish music season' in which all the acts I feature in my contributions to this blog will be from Sweden. (I know what you're thinking: how will we tell the difference?)

Anyway, basically it'll be less blather, more music for the next little while; which has to be a good thing, right? If you want to know more about some of the artists featured here just click on the 'labels' tab at the bottom of the entries. (Alternatively you could just go out and buy their entire back catalogues. Yes, do that.)

Let's get the ball rolling, shall we, with four - count 'em! - songs from one of my absolute favourite compilation albums, the magnificent, two-disc Svensk Indie 1988-2006 - En Kärleks Historia - a must-buy, I'd suggest, for any serious lovers of the genre. (That Bear Quartet song title takes some beating too.)

happydeadmen - Silent Sigh City mp3

Frida Hyvönen - Once I was A Serene Teenage Child mp3

Marit Bergman - This Is The Year mp3

The Bear Quartet - It Only Takes A Flashlight To Create A Monster mp3

Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be Andrew Fletcher...

Crash Calloway over at Pretending Life Is Like A Song (the first blog I ever used to read regularly, and still a big favourite) recently posted an extended, remixed version of Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough - which, together with the fact that his blog is named after a Wannadies lyric, caused my addled brain to remember that I have a couple of energetic early Depeche Mode cover versions by the Swedish indie poppers knocking around, which would seem perfect for putting up here, being that both are blummin' well fantastic. Spike originally put these on a birthday mix CD six years ago after I'd been bugging her to track them down for me for a while (I didn't have much of a clue about all this new-fangled downloading malarkey myself back then. How times change). Anyway, I digress. Here be the songs!

The Wannadies - Just Can't Get Enough mp3

The Wannadies - New Life mp3

(mp3s available for 7 days)

If you enjoy these, I'd thoroughly recommend you download the Wannadies' sublime 1992 album Aquanautic in its entirety for a bargain £5.95 here. It is quide liderally the best thing since sliced bread!

Three of a kind #27

Today I'd like to bang on, if I may, about what is quite possibly my favourite compilation album: Popnation - Best of Blekingska Nationen 1994 - 96.

Blekingska Nationen is a student club in Lund, the largest university city in Sweden, which since 1994 has run its own Friday club night, Indigo. Loads of up-and-coming and already established bands have played Indigo down the years, and Popnation, released in 1996, features 21 of these acts - all of them Swedish, and many of them extremely good indeed.

For someone, like yours truly, living in the UK and eager to hear as much contemporary Swedish indie pop as possible in those pre-mp3, pre-broadband days of 1996, this album really was a fantastic boon. It introduced me to lots of Swedish artists who I'd never previously been aware of: Honey Is Cool, Brainpool, The Bear Quartet, Chevy, Rottingdean, Yvonne, Mutts, Cloudberry Jam, S.P.O.C.K. and Lustans Lakejer, to name but quite a few. In fact, the Cardigans would have been pretty much the only band present who I'd already have known.

And do you know what the best thing of all is about this classic compilation? It's still available to buy, if you know where to look! (see link at the end of this entry for details.)

Here are three of my favourite Popnation moments anyway - although I could just as easily have chosen a completely different trio of tracks. (there are at least a dozen on this album that are officially great.)

Lustans Lakejer - Segerns Sötma mp3 (everything else on this album is student-friendly mid-90s fare, but this track is different in that it's a synth pop classic from 1981!)

Chevy - My Girlfriend Says mp3

Honey Is Cool - Zanzibar mp3 (featuring Karin Dreijer Andersson, now one half of The Knife.)

(mp3s available for 7 days)

Buy Popnation - The Best of Blekingska Nationen 1994 - 1996 here.

Popundret / Asha Ali

A double helping of Swedish goodness today!

Formed in 1991, and heavily influenced by English bands like The Smiths, Popundret were yet another group to emerge from the northern Swedish town of Skellefteå - and, naturally, to sign for the local A West Side Fabrication label. Although the sum total of their recorded output only stretched to a couple of singles and one album (1996's Montmartre 15 40), Popundret did leave a couple of truly marvellous songs in their wake: Shiver Gone and Stab Me (the former especially being so utterly Smithsian that you might be forgiven for thinking that Morrissey had a long-lost Swedish twin!). But despite wearing their influences so heavily on their sleeves, these are both great songs in their own right.

Popundret - Shiver Gone mp3

Popundret - Stab Me mp3

We're getting towards the time of year when people start putting together their "Best of" lists for the past twelve months. Don't worry - I'm not about to bore you with one of my own, but I may drop in the odd personal '07 favourite here and there over the next few weeks. Which brings us to up-and-coming Swedish singer-songwriter Asha Ali's A Promise Broken. I first became aware of this track two or three months ago via the Into The Groove blog, and I've hardly stopped listening to it since. A really great pop song, and a real star in the making.

Asha Ali - A Promise Broken mp3

Asha Ali's self-titled debut album is available to buy as a download from the Klicktrack Music shop.

Popundret's Montmartre 1540 album is available from CD Baby.

The Drowners

One of many fine Swedish bands to have started out on the brilliant A West Side Fabrication label based in the northern town of Skellefteå, The Drowners are a power pop combo who emerged in the mid-90s and have gone on to release five studio albums in the intervening decade - the latest of which, the ominously titled Cease To Be, was released at the end of July this year.

I mentioned the release date there because, Cease To Be being the band's first release for five years, I'd previously assumed that they'd already done just that - i.e. ceased to be - so it was a pleasant surprise to learn that The Drowners are still very much an entity.

The band comprises five members: vocallist Magnus Vikstrom, Andreas Persson on drums, Leif Renstrom and Mikael Sundqvist on guitars, and Par Nordstrom on bass. Originally influenced by bands such as R.E.M., Husker Du and The Replacements, the band quickly established their own distinctive sound, and songs such as Teenager, The Destroyer, Is There Something On Your Mind?, Summer Break My Fall and 21 all stand up well alongside the excellent Swindie pop produced by nineties contemporaries such as Popsicle, Brainpool and The Wannadies.

Here are a couple of examples of The Drowners' sound: debut single Teenager, from 1996; and, from the latest album, Words (a cover of the wonderfully cheesy 1983 F.R. David classic!).

The Drowners - Teenager mp3

The Drowners - Words (Don't Come Easy) mp3

(songs available for 7 days)

Buy Drowners stuff from Listening Post Music.

Visit The Drowners on MySpace.

Three of a kind #18

A trio of cover versions by Swedish artists of other Swedish artists' songs today: all-female acapella choir The Sweptaways tackle El Perro Del Mar's Say;Acid House Kings reinterpret Loveninjas' Keep Your Love; and The Cardigans' Carnival is dramatically reworked by, umm, The Cardigans!

The Sweptaways - Say mp3

Acid House Kings - Keep Your Love mp3

The Cardigans - Carnival (Puck Version) mp3

In other news, Spike's modem's knackered so I'm afraid you're stuck with just me until she gets a new one. Come back soon, Spikey!

Buy music by today's featured artists at the Klicktrack mp3 shop.

Great moments in Swedish pop #9627

Taking their name from (of all things) a flavour of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Pineforest Crunch were formed in the Swedish city of Solna in 1996 by former school friends Åsa Eklund, Olle Söderström, Mats Lundgren and Mattias Olsson, along with ski trip acquaintance(!) Jonas Petterson. Influenced by bands like American Music Club and The Sundays, Pineforest Crunch went on to record three well-received albums and an EP between 1996 and 2002. From the first album, here are the band playing the ineffably marvellous Cup Noodle Song (a #3 smash in the Swedish pop charts in '96), live on Japanese TV:



Isn't that just the greatest thing? Actually, there's also a video of another Pineforest Crunch classic, Shang-ri La, up on You Tube, but the sound quality's terrible on that one and really doesn't do the song justice, so it's probably best to give it a wide berth. I do have the CD single of Shang-ri La somewhere, but couldn't find it for looking tonight, so I'll have to put that up here at a later date, just as soon as I've tracked it down. I have at least managed to locate my copy of the first album, Make Believe, though, so am able to furnish you with an mp3 of the previously-mentioned, permanently-brilliant Cup Noodle Song. Now I can't say fairer than that!

Pineforest Crunch - Cup Noodle Song mp3 (up for 7 days - left click)

Why not check out Pineforest Crunch's official website

Or buy some of their music at CD Baby

"Hurry up let's go, don't want to miss a thing"

On September 11th in America, Shout Out Louds will release their second album, Our Ill Wills, the follow up to Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. While the title of their debut is clearly the superior of the two, from what I've heard so far the follow up is definitely more than its equal musically. The difficult second album syndrome has obviously not affected the Stockholm band. (Yes, they're Swedes. I can't help it - I'm drawn to them!)

The opening track is an absolute belter. I was less than twenty seconds into it when I realised I would be playing it on repeat non-stop for at least a week. Left click the link below to download Tonight I Have To Leave It.

Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have To Leave It mp3 (available for 7 days)

Shout Out Louds are Adam Olenius, Ted Malmros, Carl von Arbin, Eric Edman and Bebban Stenborgand and fans of the Wannadies will definitely not want to pass them by. Sadly they're not playing in the UK until 26th November - just one solitary gig at The Borderline in London. But they'll be all over North America during October. Lucky Yanks!
The band has been together since 2001 and released Howl Howl Gaff Gaff in 2003, so it's been four years between albums. About time too! Let's hope they don't leave us hanging for so long next time.

You can pre-order Our Ill Wills from Merge Records or Insound (at Insound use the coupon code: shoutout15 when you're about to complete your purchase and you´ll get a 15% discount).
Did I mention that it was produced by Björn Yttling (of Peter Björn and John fame)? It seems only fair, since Ted co-directed the Grammy award winning video for Young Folks.



There's plenty to look at on the Shout Out Louds website and there are more songs to be heard on their myspace page.
Those of us in the UK can go to good old Rough Trade to buy Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. The track below is from that album.

Shout Out Louds - Hurry Up Let's Go mp3 (available for 7 days)

I'll leave you with a link to the video of 'The Comeback' just because it's an ace song, and it seemed an appropriate note to end on. Welcome back, Shout Out Louds!

Three of a kind #7: Popsicle / Sweet Chariots / Andreas Mattsson

Before I go on I'd better nail my colours to the mast here: Andreas Mattsson, about whom I'm going to write today, is possibly, and quite probably, my favourite singer-songwriter - so apologies in advance if I end up sounding like some kind of gushing fanboy here. (readers: if your own fanboy is gushing, I suggest you seek medical advice immediately.)

Andreas, as seasoned Swedish indiepop watchers will know, started out fronting legendary nineties combo Popsicle, who released five albums (or six, if you include their debut 6-track A West Side Fabrication release, Template, which I do.) between 1992 and 97. These albums are mostly out of print now, but Swedish mail order store Hotstuff (among others) do currently stock the 2005 double best of CD, The Good Side of Popsicle, which I would recommend as essential listening for anyone who fancies hearing one of the true pioneers of the Swedish indie scene at their absolute finest.

From The Good Side of... here's Popsicle's sublime 1994 single Make Up:

Popsicle - Make Up mp3 (left click to download)

Following the band's decision to split up at the end of the nineties, Mattsson teamed up with Atomic Swing mainman Niclas Frisk (who'd produced Popsicle's latter albums) to form the should-have-been-huge-but-somehow-weren't Sweet Chariots. The Chariots, as I think we'll call them, only released one album, the cumbersomely-titled Beat-Based / Song-Centred / Spirit-Led, in 2000, but it contained some songs as good as anything Popsicle ever recorded - which is extremely good indeed. Check out the uplifting and inspirational Cry No More Tears for proof of their sheer, unbridled genius!

Sweet Chariots - Cry No More Tears mp3

In 2003, Mattsson and Frisk teamed up once again to work on the A Camp album with Cardigans singer Nina Persson. Following this project, the lads hooked up with French chanteuse Vanessa Contenay-Quinones and James Iha (ex- Smashing Pumpkins) to form Vanessa And The O's. (more on them another day.)

Despite continuing to play with The O's, Andreas found the time in 2006 to record his first solo album, The Lawlessness of the Ruling Classes, for tip-top Swedish label Hybris. By far the most mellow release of his career to date, this album should appeal to anyone who enjoys grown-up, introspective pop music. (Richard Hawley would be a good comparison.) Have a listen to one of the standout tracks, the haunting Summer of Speed, and see what you think.

Andreas Mattsson - Summer of Speed mp3

Buy The Lawlessness of the Ruling Classes here.

(In other news, I've changed my Blogger display name to something a bit wacky, in lieu of an actual personality.)

"I saw the boy I love kiss another girl"

The first thing you need to know about Free Loan Investments is that if you do a search for them on the internet, you will be bombarded with dodgy sites promising to help you get rich quick. The second thing you need to know about Free Loan Investments is that they are a now disbanded quartet. The third thing you need to know about Free Loan Investments is that they made tuneful jangly pop music in the Talulah Gosh mould.

It matters not that they are Swedish or that band member Roger Gunnarsson was also in Nixon or that Amanda Aldervall went on to form the Busy Band. Nor that they both count Amelia Fletcher among their heroes.

Have a listen to the lovely-sounding but viciously-titled Kick His Balls Out. When has anything so pretty had such bite to it?

Free Loan Investments - Kick His Balls Out mp3 (right click and 'save as')

More sadness disguised by an upbeat tune below.

Free Loan Investments - In The Park mp3 (left click available for 7 days)

You can read an entertaining interview with Roger and Amanda here and watch them playing live on the youtube clip below.



One day I'd love to discover a band I really get excited about and find out that they haven't stopped playing...

"When the lights were out I broke into your home"

The band I'll be talking about today come from Sweden (surely that country has given us more than its fair share of fantastic music already?). Stockholm, to be precise. That's about all I know about them, to be honest! Well, that and the fact there are five members of the band - Andrea Dahlkild, Gunnar Jacobsson, Kristoffer Rengfors, Pontus Leander and Robert Klaesson.
Hari and Aino have recently released a single containing three tracks on the excellent Cloudberry Records label. You can download the tracks from the Hari and Aino myspace page but CDs with artwork are far better than silly old mp3s, aren't they? Having said that, here are a couple of mp3s for you to be listening to in the meantime.

The single, Your Heartache And Mine, is my favourite track of Hari and Aino's. Download it below and witness them playing it live here. Then buy it because it's so blummin' brilliant!

Hari and Aino - Your Heartache And Mine (right click and save as)

Second Song is also rather good. I like to sing that other great Swedish band ABBA's Mamma Mia along with it sometimes. It fits in quite well for a little while...

Hari and Aino - Second Song (right click and save as)

Three of a kind #1

Three-pack of early-to-mid-nineties Swedish guitar pop anthems, anyone?

Popsicle - Hey Princess mp3

The Wannadies - Lucky You mp3

Brainpool - Bandstarter mp3

(above tracks all available for seven days)

Buy Swedish music here

Mr Pacino and me

Agent Simple is Stefan Strömberg, Gothenburg factory worker and - in his spare time - purveyor of superb lo-fi indie pop. Comparisons with Jens Lekman and Suburban Kids With Biblical Names will inevitably arise with seasoned Swindie fans hearing Agent Simple's songs for the first time - purely because of the similar vocal stylings - but I'm a big fan of both the aforementioned acts so the Agent's vocal similarity is no bad thing at all as far as I'm concerned.

He's so far released two EPs - 2005's I Got Mad At The Kids and this year's Shaking An Egg. Now, having never even heard of Agent Simple until yesterday, I've not heard these EPs in their entirety yet, but I've really liked the four songs I've caught so far. My favourites are Make A Right At Jordfallsmotet, a paean to his smalltown upbringing; and Friday, which lyrically provides us with a sort of modern update on the sentiments expressed by Paul Simon on I Am A Rock. Marvellous stuff. See what you think.

Agent Simple - Friday mp3 (available for seven days)

Agent Simple - Make A Right At Jordfallsmotet mp3 (available for seven days)

Buy the Shaking An Egg EP here

Agent Simple's My Space page

All of my sorrows were gone

Elias and the Wizzkids are the latest signings to Sweden's rather wonderful Hybris label, home of such luminaries as The Sweptaways, Andreas Mattsson, El Perro Del Mar and TIAC. The Wizzkids' new single, The Dance, is an absolute belter of a tune (I defy anyone to listen to it without tapping their feet throughout!), with the lyrics finding our man chronicling his feelings of unspecified restlessness one day. Just what is it that's missing from his life? Could it be coffee, could it be tea? Chocolate? Or is he just feeling lonely and in need of a friend? Well, no. After trying all of the above with no success, he suddenly experiences an epiphany and all is revealed: dancing is the cure for his woes! (which I suppose makes him a sort of modern-day equivalent of the Dancing Priest in that episode of Father Ted.)

Anyway, those nice people at Hybris are very generously giving The Dance away as a free mp3, so I'm including it here for your listening pleasure, along with two other songs - I Wish and Regret - that Elias & the Wizzkids have made available for download on their own website. Mighty fine they are too.

Elias and the Wizzkids - The Dance (radio edit) mp3

Elias and the Wizzkids - I Wish mp3

Elias and the Wizzkids - Regret mp3

Elias and the Wizzkids on My Space

Everyone is gorgeous and so are you

More Swedes on the menu today. A couple of the finest songs of the past decade or so, these, for me. First off, there's Starfriend by Freewheel, which is quite possibly the best song you've never heard; three minutes and forty seven seconds of pure pop perfection (honestly!). Mere words can't do justice to its sheer wondrousness, so I won't even try. Just suck it and see. The fact that the song - which is now 10 years old - never became a worldwide smash is, and shall remain, a complete mystery to me. Was it even a hit in Sweden? If not, then there really is no justice. Pah!

Secondly, it's fellow Swedes Ray Wonder with We Got To Be Good To Each Other, a supreme, life-affirming blast of indie powerpop,
which fans of The Wannadies and Eggstone might well appreciate. I've only heard one album of RW's - A New Kind of Love - but I must say I do like the cut of their jib. (What strange phrases the English language often throws up - not literally, that would be hideous. Aha! etc)

Anyway, as with so many other bands you'll find on this blog, both Freewheel and Ray Wonder are sadly no longer together. Yet still Robbie Williams sells millions of records. The God of pop's a funny bugger, and no mistake.

Freewheel - Starfriend.mp3

Ray Wonder - We Got To Be Good To Each Other.mp3

Buy Freewheel stuff here

Buy Ray Wonder stuff here

I never tasted meatballs like yours

Ever since the mid-90s heyday of The Cardigans, The Wannadies and Popsicle, I've been a huge fan of Swedish indie pop - or "Swindie", to give it its proper name. But it wasn't always an easy scene to follow from the UK, bearing in mind that outside of the aforementioned bands, you'd have been hard pressed to find much in the way of Swindie in your local HMV or Virgin Megashop.

So, in the days before the internet (or at least before I personally had 'net access) I was grateful to Hotstuff in Sweden, who'd feed my Swindie habit by mailing their latest music catalogue out to me a couple of times a year. (The words "Hotstuff Mail Order - Sweden" showing up on your credit card statement have quite a high potential embarrassment factor about them, by the way - especially when the card in question belongs to your dad, and he thinks the reason you borrowed his Visa card was to send away for a load of Scandinavian porn! Took me a while to talk my way out of that one, I can tell you.)

It was thanks to Hotstuff that I first really stumbled upon the superb A West Side Fabrication, an independent label based in Skellefteå on the north east coast of Sweden. AWSF had launched the careers of, among others, Popsicle, The Bear Quartet and The Wannadies, and at regular intervals would release compilation albums showcasing the many bands that made up their roster. I picked up loads of these compilations, along with a whole bundle of AWSF CD singles, during a particularly nicely-priced Hotstuff sale.

One band who kept popping up on the CDs was Waterbug. To this day I still know precious little about this band, other than that they hailed from Gothenburg, wrote lyrics about meeting Johnny Marr at a hamburger bar, and were rather good. I'm pretty sure they're not together anymore, but it's still possible to buy their CDs from the A West Side Fabrication webshop, so the music's still out there, including the following song, the rather splendid "Meatballs". They recorded two completely different versions of this song, but this one - from the "Yellow" CD single - is by far my favourite. See what you think.

Waterbug - Meatballs ('96 Version) mp3

Buy Waterbug stuff here