Today I’m starting this new year, 2012, here on the blog. I’m receiving more music than ever and I could only wish for more time to show it all to you here on Meadowmusic. Well, I’ll do my best, and we’ll see where we land.

I still have artists to write about from the Autumn, so I’ll start with one of these. First up is Kristoffer Hedberg, who released his third album, “Mina jag och du”, in the beginning of December. Lasse Lindh is the producer and together they have created an enjoyable album, with first of all a refreshed sound if I’m comparing with the earlier songs.

Yes, I write refreshed, because that’s how it feels. Before it was about singer/songwriter-pop with the usual set of instruments: guitars, drums, piano, harmonica etc. But here I meet arrangements and a production that look for new ways. While the compositions basically have the same character as before, now electronica, beats and other ideas have entered. Sometimes as the main ingredients in the arrangements and sometimes just to create space and paint new colours in the background.

He feels a little like a young Peter LeMarc for the 2010’s, with lyrics that least of all feel routine-like; they are written with care, warm and inventive. Here below you can download the first single, the somewhat Springsteen-vibing “Du och jag och Columbus” (“You and Me and Columbus”), but I can hardly say that it’s representative for the album as a whole. The arrangements are varying with it’s own idea for every song. You can listen to the album on Spotify and you can find Kristoffer on his site and on Facebook.

Du och jag och Columbus

I wrote about the electro pop band Storbritannien and their EP “Krita” in the beginning of this year. After some delays with the follow-up to their EP “Krita”, they are now back again with the new single Domino. They are releasing it today and gave me the opportunity to publish it here on Meadowmusic.

This will probably be the last post in 2011, so I would like to wish all the artists and all you listeners that come here a happy new year! I’ll see you next year, and judging from the incoming stream of music, we have a lot to look forward to in 2012.

Here’s “Domino” with Storbritannien:

Domino

Every year I present some new Christmas songs in a post, and this year’s no exception. If you’d like to check out the songs from earlier years you can check them out here: 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

First up is ad dios. They have produced Christmas songs every year since a few years back, and now finally they have made a collection of these, together with new ones, on the album “Season of Tranquillity”. Here’s the opening track:
In the Bleak Midwinter

I wrote about Slottet and their new EP “Servants” a couple of weeks ago. Here’s their Christmas contribution:
A Cold Christmas

The Higher Elevations released their Christmas song in 2006, but since I haven’t presented it before, I thought it would fit perfectly in today’s post:
All These Winter Nights

Acid House Kings with their new Christmas single:
(I’m In) A Chorus Line 

Finally a contribution from Skånske Arne & Jonny Spöge who with “Kanske tomten har Facebook” (“Maybe Santa has Facebook”) finish a productive year with this follow-up to their debut singel “Gula lådan“:
Kanske tomten har Facebook

——-
Edit 20/12 2011 – added the new Christmas single from Acid House Kings

Elias and the Wizzkids’ second album “Just Do It!” was released last year, but since I didn’t write about it then, I thought that it would appropriate to do it now. Especially since the starting track of the album “Waste of Time” totally hooked me up, a song that I think was among the absolute best pop songs last year, and it became even stronger with the brilliant nostalgic music video by Mats Udd.

Besides the the nice sense of melodies, the text theme and Elias Åkesson’s characteristic voice, I can’t say that the song is typical for the album. Instead you’re invited to a most varied journey where they get inspiration from pop from the sixties and the seventies, from disco, synth pop from the eighties, indie and much more, without digging too much in one place in any song. You can listen to this fine album on Spotify and you’ll find the band on their site.

Waste of Time

Support the artist: Buy “Just Do It!” – on iTunes – on Amazon

Slottet released their new EP “Servants” last month. Besides being available on Spotify the EP was also released on casette tape. It’s not the first time I’ve encountered cassette tapes this Autumn, so I think I can say that there is sort of a cassette revival going on.

And the EP  is a quite pleasant acquaintance. The first three tracks contain a rather minimalistic electronica accompanying good indie pop-vibing melodies and close vocals by Marcus Wahlström, while the finishing two songs change lane somewhat in that “Please” lets the guitars come up front and normal drums is used, and “Vanity”, the last song, is built upon an acoustic guitar.

They came up with the band name Slottet (The Castle) a summer’s night one and a half year ago. They were trying to invent a name by associating with things they saw in the room, when suddenly, Yin Fai Chan, the band’s keyboard player, saw the cover of Hayao Miyazaki’s movie “Howl’s Moving Castle” and threw out the word “Slottet”. According to Marcus Wahlström, this led to a kind of eureka moment for the band, and the name was set.

You can follow Slottet on their Facebook page. Here’s the first song on “Servants”

Agnostic Nightmare