Heart-Sick Groan’s singer Johan Brännström has released a row of  singles and EP’s as a solo artist, where he and his guitar travels into classic Dylan-inspired grounds. It’s been a little more than a year since his last single, but now he’s back with three songs on the EP “New Set of Dreams”, containing some of his absolutely best songs so far. Beautiful, with memorable, simple melodies, where he finishes with this Simon & Garfunkel-vibing “In a Midsummer’s Night, which you can hear below.

Johan Brännström on Facebook – on Bandcamp

In a Midsummer’s Night

The band John Moose comes from the deep woods of Värmland around Hagfors. So far they have released an EP with three songs, and you can listen to one of them here below. It’s melancholic and dreamy and it’s easy to get images from the deep forests from where they come, even though my first thoughts were those of wide, foggy English moorlands.

John Moose on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

No Harm

In the beginning of the Autumn Restless Riot, hailing from Lund and Malmö, released their debut album “Leaving the Circus”. Like they write themselves it’s about indie pop that meets alt-country in ten songs. In many parts the album is loaded with tension, much because of the singer Daniel Engelbertsen’s Conor Oberst-sounding expression with the characteristic anxiety-loaded trembling, where he in the slower songs hangs on to every word and has me glued to the speakers.

I also like the contrasts on the album, where they, for exemple, in the Damien Rice-vibing duet “Waltz of I”, go from the quiet, darkly beautiful to the rough, messy, drum-distorted “Blind Horse” with it’s unruly Aladdin Sane-piano. Another example and favourite is the song “Learn” where Broselids electric piano harmonies paints an Air-sounding atmosphere in the background. An interesting debut, which makes me curious about what they will be up to next. Have a taste here below in two songs.

Restless Riot’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Waltz of I
Learn

Yesterday Turn Off Your Television released their second album “Humble Waves”. And I do recognise some parts from last year’s wonderful debut album. The folk pop and rock with beautiful melodies is still present, but yet it is quite a different experience in several ways.

The dreamy and the fine-polished has been cast aside and given way for a dirtier, more naked and more back-to-the-roots sound, where influences from the sixties and the seventies are quite obvious, from Beatlesque pop to psychadelia. At the same time it’s darker and with a sound with better depth and heaviness. An album that feels at least as strong as the former one, but in a different way.

Turn Off Your Television’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Shaky Little Hands
Bottle of Black

Today I start the week with an exclusive premiere of a song. And when it’s this good it feels even more special to present it here on the blog. The song is “Rather Be Singing Than Thinking” by Gus By Heart, Gustav Svedung’s solo project. And in two days, October 10th, he will also release a cassette EP with the same title as the song, in addition to the digital release.

Gustav, whom we’ve met before here on the blog in the band My Closest Friend, and who have worked with bands like Navid Modiri and Oh, Harry, dropped out of all the projects and escaped into a small studio in Majorna in Göteborg, a little more than a year ago. After countless hours of experimenting and with the ambition of creating his very own musical universe, he’s now releasing four songs as a result of this, and with a hint that we’ll soon get to hear more songs.

The song and the EP title -titeln alludes to a song by Loudon Wainwright III, “Dreaming”, which starts with the line “I’d rather be dreaming than living, living’s just too hard to do”. The song has been an inspiration in his work with the songs, especially when it comes to the theme of several of the songs.

The result feels quite unique and with small means he’s created a soundscape that starts somewhere in singer/songwriter music and culminates in dreamy pop with sometimes filmic crescendos. It’s beautiful and melancholic and with Gustav’s special voice tone and desperate, dreamy and searching expression, I get curious of what’s to come, to say the least. Here below you’ll find the song, and also the excellent opening track “Hideous Sounds”, which was released earlier.

Gus By Heart’s site – på Facebook – på Soundcloud

Rather Be Singing Than Thinking