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

In the beginning of the week Jonas Carping released his debut album “All the Time In the World”. Some of the songs we recognise from the earlier EP “Underground” and the single “The Sting”, and I think these two title track are also the strongest on the album. The other songs doesn’t disappoint, though, and it’s an even album with variation between the songs, from being alone with the guitar to a full band with strings, and all the time maintaing the warm and somewhat melancholic ambience on the album.

Jonas Carping’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

The One

Here’s a wonderful album debut, the EP “Someone Special”, from Silent Symphony, aka Charlotta Nilsen. Four songs that differs from each other a bit, but that all have a warm, pleasant acoustic sound, produced and mixed by Gustaf Eklund. With  Charlotta’s unique, lightly jazz-touched voice, the EP makes a really enjoyable experience. In the duet “Someone Special” she also gets help fromViktor Vademark. Next release is in December with the single “Revolution”.

Silent Symphony’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Someone Special

Today I’m listening to Magnus Bergman’s fourth solo album “Ljusspår”. And I like what I hear, the best I’ve heard from Magnus so far. With flangy sixties’ guitars and a double bass in the frontline he manages to create his own warm sound. A sound with which he can safely wander between the songs and the style variations without losing anyone; from early Direstraits-rock to country rock to folk pop and even some rockabilly doses. And Magnus himself sings with a comfortable, relaxed expression, conveying the theme of the album, which is about the story of a man who finds his way home in life, first of all within himself. A classy album, both when it comes to songwriting and production.

Magnus Bergmans hemsida – på Facebook – på Spotify

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