Helena Arlock recently released her debut album “Old Dirty Hound” (Red Olive). And she has succeeded in creating a very special mix of styles here, with catchy pop interwoven with jazzy blues, electronica with acoustic. Like if the experimental side of Lykke Li would meet the soft emotional side of Nina Persson.

It’s dreamy, varied and somewhat minimalistic, a really pleasant album which you can listen to more on her Myspace page. You can also visit Helenas Arlock’s site where you can listen, read her blog and more.

Listen to and download the first two tracks of “Old Dirty Hound”:

Fragile Me Fragile You
Misery

I’m listening to The Crystal Caravan’s new album, their debut album, which they released last week. Dennis Lyxzén is the producer, and together they have filled the ten track album with loads nostalgic feelings.

If you love rock from the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, this is real ear candy. I hear Cream, MC5, Lynyrd Skynyrd, jam, blues rock, southern rock and it’s like it’s made for a sweaty rock concert.  The sound is perfect for this and i hear a bunch of skilled, tight musicians with a large dose of joy and feeling for what they do.

See you on the road, I hope.

You can listen to a couple of tracks from the album here. If you’d like to listen more you should visit The Crystal Caravan on Myspace. You’ll find their site here.

A New Time Is Coming
Train Song

I was a little surprised as I listened to the latest track from The Upallnights, “The Morning After”. Their music before this points in many directions, but can maybe be described (sometimes) as pop with a punk attitude. But this was quite a different animal: Uplifting pop with brass, a direct song that hooks me.

I have no problems with these genre variations The Upallnights shows us, on the contrary, especially if they do it so well as they do. Here you can listen to the latest track, and if you’d like to listen to more songs and download, you should visit The Upallnights’ site or their Myspace page.

The Morning After

Others on The Upallnights: 3Hive, Absolut Noise, Fred Perry Subculture

There is something captivating, authentic about Le Days, aka Daniel Hedin, which I can’t explain. The first track I heard with Le Days was “Hotspot”, which gave me a sensation of Conor Oberst meets Manu Chao, fascinating and rhythmic. But after having listened to more songs, it seemed like that he wouldn’t be so easy to catch.

It runs off in totally different directions, from acoustic ballads to more anxiety-loaded works, psychadelia and other stuff. I like it, to enter Daniel’s world of music, some lo-fi, no rules, to see, as he says himself, where it will lead. It’s he and his guitar (and some other instruments), naked and nothing to hide behind. It seems to me that he doesn’t wait for the “perfect” take, but he knows when he has put in the right feeling and shows it for us.

You can listen more to Le Days on Myspace.

Listen to and download three tracks:

Hot Spot
Blood Red Heart
I’ve Got a Masterplay, Playing In My Mind

We have presented him before. But Frispåkarn doesn’t stop at just giving us “Den ena dan är den andra lik”; he continues to create at a high level. Here he gives us his new singel “Nästa tåg nästa buss” (“Next Train Next Bus”), a song that is very direct for me, a song where he presents us with a darker side of Stokholm, while the track hammers on into my mind with beats and melodies that really hook me.

It feels like Frispråkarn moves forward all the time. Listen for yourself here:

Nästa tåg nästa buss

Möt Frispråkarn på Myspace