The band BOA, hailing from Göteborg released their debut album “Forever and Never” about a month ago. The album starts with the earlier single “Push”, which has been out for a while and which is a real pop gem, so it was interesting how a whole album would sound, which direction they would take after the single.

And I think that they answered that with an impressive debut album, more varying that I would expect. It’s a pop album indeed, with nice melodies as it should be and that radiates brightness and lightness. There’s sparkling indie pop, more quite pieces, dreamy pop and songs with a more distinctive beat in the direction of electro pop. All the time with a good balance between the songs so that I feel I’m still in BOA-land, with well crafted songs containing a proper amount of unpredictability and the bright voice of the singer Orsi keeping it together nice. A good pop album simply put.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and part of it on their site. They have a Facebook page too of course. Here are two songs:

Push
Like Dust On Your Heart

Support the artist: Buy “Forever and Never” – on iTunes – on Amazon

Recently the self titled debut album from Principe Valiente was reissued, which was an excellent occasion to present the band here on Meadowmusic, I thought. They have created a characteristic sound where I hear shoegaze with a lot of vibes from the eighties’ reverbing rooms and dark atmosphere from what some call post punk. Sometimes the thoughts irrevocably goes to Sisters of Mercy, maybe mostly because of the vocals than anything else.

Listen for yourself here below, and take a look at their Bandcamp page or Spotify to listen to the whole album. You’ll find the the band on their site and on Facebook.

In My Arms
Stay

Support the artist: Buy “Principe Valiente” – on iTunes – on Amazon

Whipping Princess was started by the bass player Karl Hinterleithner and the singer Jenny “Princess” Jonasson. The ambition was to whip together their own blend of soul, rock, blues, punk and metal and a first effort came earlier this year with the EP “Let You and Me Be One”.

It’s a somewhat uneven production but where a song like “State of Hate” stands out and sounds of garage-vibing hard rock with metal influences. The singer Jenny has a special tone and quite a strong voice and attitude, reminding a little of Dio in her expression.

You can listen more on Whipping Princess’ site or on Facebook.

State of Hate

The band Jet Link released a single in the beginning of October, with two songs as a first taste of the upcoming album. They have released a couple of EP:s since they started in 2009, but I haven’t listened to them before, so this was a nice new acquaintance..

The song “Foxes” is a really good song; uplifting rock that smells indie from far away, but still a nice pop construction in the bottom. Listen for yourself here below.

Listen more on Jet Link’s Bandcamp page, on Spotify or on their Facebook page.

Foxes

Support the artist: Buy Foxes/Leeroy – on Itunes – on Amazon

A couple of days ago Patrick Rydman released his second album, “What Took You So Long”. If the debut album, from 2008, mainly was a jazz album with pop influences, I’d say that it’s the other way around this time: a pop album with a jazzy feeling and lots of sould vibes. It varies more in style between the songs, but mostly i land in the seventies between Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and Billy Joel with a detour to Sting’s jazz pop on a couple of songs.

It feels like Patrick is perfectly at home in this music, and some songs feel almost like tributes to his predecessors, which all in all gives the album a pleasant, laidback atmosphere. The top moments for me are the more quiet songs, first of all in “Soldier Song”, where you come closer to Patrick.

You can find more info on Patrick Rydman’s site and on his Facebook page. Here’s the second single from the album:

I See You Crying