“The Essential” ususally means that someone collects the best songs from earlier album releases. This is not the case with this album, which in fact is Fleet of Clay’s debut album, but fits in the sense that they have collected the best they have recorded during a few years an made an album out of it. And it also fits with respect to the quality of the songs, because it’s an impressive collection of songs.

The album contains 25 songs with music which first of all has it’s roots in the sixties and the beginning of the seventies. Pop, country, folk with vibes from bands like Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y, Beatles, Kinks and others. It’s a classic production with few overdubs except the main instruments, the vocals and the choirs, and there’s plenty of pleasant guitars and good vocals. It’s a pearl of an album, and the song quality lasts all 25 tracks through, where they varies from classic sixties’ pop to cheeky country to fine-tuned folk pop without losing neither themselves nor the listener. There’s a kind of playful self-convidence on the album, that you would expect from a band that has released three or four albums already.

The men behind Fleet of Clay are the three brothers Knut, Erik and Karl Svanholm. Unfortunately they don’t seem to be that active with the band any longer; Knut is working with his band Lobst and their new album, and that’s as much as I know now. There is a Facebook page, though, and on Spotify you can listen to all songs. Here are two tracks:

Everyone Now
The Mist

Now we in Bus Stop Dreams have released our third single, “Come Together” (and no, it’s not a Beatles cover). There are two songs, written by Lasse Thomasson and Pär Enqvist respectively, treating the same subject but from two different perspectives. “A dystopian group cuddle” we call it.

The singer on the title track is Andreas Lundgren and on the second song “Let Us Light a Fire” Ulla Wrethagen is singing. You can listen to and download the songs here below, and you can also find these and our other songs on Bus Stop Dreams’ music page. You can find out more about Bus Stop Dreams on the site and on Facebook.

Come Together
Let Us Light a Fire

Bring the Mourning On releases another track for free from their album “Going, Going, Gone”, which I wrote about earlier this year. It’s the excellent “Eye of the Beholder”, which you can listen to and download below, accompanied by a video made by Björn Wahlström (Idle Hands).

You can listen to the entire album on the band’s site, on Bandcamp or on Spotify.

Eye of the Beholder

Buy “Going, Going, Gone” – on iTunes – on Amazon

The duo Mutual Friends released the album “The Cabin” in the autumn. 10 beautiful tracks with folk music, americana on the border to country, acoustic and coloured with mandolin, banjo and harmonica.

The vocals feel very special with a dark voice that sort of marks the entire atmosphere of the music and gives it a more mature feeling, like if Johnny Cash would join in anytime, even if the style maybe lies more in outskirts of his territories.

You can listen to “The Cabin” on Spotify. I’m afraid that I haven’t found any other page with the band’s music, besides the ordinary 30-s snippets on for example Itunes and Amazon. The band also has a Facebook page.

Boys On Bicycles
Winter In July

Bring the Mourning On brings us to the US and to the country music areas where Neil Young spent a lot of time in during the seventies. Dark, alternative country with a hint of rock, the band says about their music, which I think is a good description.

The sound feels classic and Henning Pettersson show the right suffering in his voice; listen especially to the song “Let the Battle Begin” here below, a song that has a lot of what you could ask from the genre.

The debut album, “Going Going Gone”, was released in January and is available since a few days on Spotify. Find out more about Bring the Mourning On on their site.

Let the Battle Begin
Changes