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

Vacancy Labour, hailing from Linköping, who I presented last year with a song, released their debut album “Sakura, Sakura” in August. The album starts with the song “Roads”, smelling of arenas and with some Coldplay vibes. The songs that follow maintain to a large part that arena vibe and feels like a mix of indie rock influences from both today and yesterday.

It’s rather alternating between softer parts and more powerful grand parts, all with well-forged melodies. I get the feeling, when I listen, that there is a lo-fi-filter across the whole thing, like if someone were playing it to me on an old vinyl player. That’s fits quite well in a way with the melancholic ambience giving it a roughed-up feeling. What I do miss in the sound, though, is some more punch and bass, so it can really be felt. Listen for yourself in a couple of songs here below.

Vacancy Labours site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Diamonds In the Sky
Kid Named Venus

Salvadir, hailing from Göteborg, last month released the single “Random Love”, an indie rock song which they have loaded with a large dose of vibes from the sixties. Last year they released their debut EP, and now they are going to release the next EP, from where this song is taken.

Salvadir on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

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