Today I’m opening the blog for the season. It turned into a quite heavy start with the chocking news this morning about the death of David Bowie. It’s an artist whose music been a part of me all through my life, and who was tremendously important to me as an identity-seeking teenager. A light in the dark in many ways.
This post is about Magnus Bergman and Saga Björling’s new song “Natten”, though, a song which had its premiere in full today. I wrote about the project about a month ago as they presented the first part of the more than 13 minute long song. It’s a track in three parts, which comes out as a walk through the darkness of our world with a lamp in hand, anxiously seeking for a way out. It’s powerful and immensely beautiful when Magnus secure voice unites with Saga’s wonderful, bright vocals.
As I wrote before, the song project also consists of a video which has been created by the film makers at Anno 800 in Falun. They took the mission to create a visual interpretation of the song, which resulted in this creative film, an animated collage of thoughts which takes you through the song.
Time for this year’s post with Christmas songs. Here’s a collection of new songs where you might find some to add to your Christmas playlist you spin every year. Merry Christmas!
The last time we heard from Chirping was last year with the single “Ambitions”. I’m happy to see now that they have recorded a new EP during the Autumn, which they will release in the beginning of next year. They serve us a Christmas song as a warm-up, and a really nice one too.
I haven’t hear from the powerpop band The Genuine Fakes in four years, since they released their debut album “The Striped Album”. But now they are soon coming out with their second album, and just like the band above, they give us an appetizer in the shape of a Christmas single. The first track is a cover of a song from “Frozen” and the second one is their own, a song they released last year as part of charity record.
Michael Fannon won the radio show “Svensktoppen nästa 2015”, and he follows up on his single hit with a great Christmas track called “Första julen utan dig”.
Sveket is another project that makes a comeback with a Christmas song. Here with a great version of “Last Christmas”, a song which has been played a bit too much over the years, but which I think they revitalize with their new version. “Förra julen” is also the name of an EP released simultaneously, containing two earlier singles and a new song, beside this cover.
Nilla Nielsen has collaborated with Lasse Lindbom on this song they have written together. That Lasse has some experience with Christmas songs from before is something you probably have noted, if you’ve ever been in Sweden at Christmas time any year after 1987, and also this time the topic is peace, love and understanding.
And now to something completely different. No, it’s not “that” “White Christmas”, but totally a different one from the Los Angeles band Hobart W. Fink. Not so much of a cute Christmas atmosphere perhaps, but rather a rough indie grunge-vibing one. The song is taken from their EP “Post Hummus”.
And then Bangalore bring us down to earth again and reminds us to put some perspective on our gluttony. Here in a synthpop-vibing, lo-fi and quite catchy song.
Even Square have made a Christmas track this year, which they describe as “…an attempt to catch the hedonistic basic values of Christmas and that the most ecological, economical, ethical and most wanted solution is to give yourself away as a Christmas gift.” Well, it rocks, it’s the Christmas groove of the year I think.
British Femme has made the coolest Christmas track on the list. The song is also a part of a charity project called CoppaFeel!, which is about breast cancer awareness.
“Merry Christmas, Marie” was the first song in 17 years from the 90’s band Red Sleeping Beauty. It’s also the second single from their upcoming album, to be released in about half a year.
I’m finishing this Christmas special with a song that is note entirely new, but that has become a favourite of mine from the recent year’s Christmas specials. Pär Edwardson is also out now with his second album “PearShaped”
The Royal Ruckus, hailing from Landskrona, released their fourth EP “Wake Up” in November. They serve a great hard bluesrock, where I especially fell for the first track “Let Me Tell You”.
The OhNos launched their debut EP “Queens of the Underworld last month. It’s a quite fitting name for a record where they play an uncomplicated garagepunk which is quite irresistable. Here’s a taste.
The trio Lava Bangs called themselves The Volcano when they visited the blog a few years ago. Now they’ve released the debut single “Ouch” under the new name, a single with a punkish, riot grrl-vibing garage rock and a great, raw sound.
Caviare Days serve us this song pearl on the their new single, “More Than One”. The psychadelic influences are still strong in their sound, well even stronger now in a vibe that feels more live and authentic than before.
The Italian artist Emanuela Drei calls herself Giungla when she’s performing solo. The other day she released her debut single, “Cold”, a cool song based on her vocals, a raw processed guitar and a drum machine.
Jon Magnusson has released the EP “Dina drömmar”, where the title track stuck in my head. It’s a charming song which reminds me a bit of Kjell Höglund.
Today Joachim Dahlbergs Vindkraft is releasing the second single from the upcoming album “Med blod som bläck”. It’s the song “Tankekraft”, which is also the song that made me stop and react to the power of Joachim’s music. Here is his story about the song:
– I wrote Tankekraft about five years ago in a small flat in Hägersten I rented from Syster Sol. It was right in the beginning of maybe the most difficult period of my life, and I’ve probably never felt so bad as I did then. The reason for that is what the upcoming album, which I have named “Med blod som bläck”, is all about. 10 songs, and each one of them is about the same thing, in kind of a chronologically told story drawn from my own experiences. Tankekraft, which is part four of the story, was the first song I wrote for the project, and it’s one of the first songs I ever wrote in Swedish. It may also be the most angry song I have. (transl. from Swedish)
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