The Shy Lips

Dream Lake

Dreamlake, hailing from Stockholm, is a duo formed by Isabella Swärdstam och Niklas Willar Lidholm. In the Autumn they released their debut EP with five tracks, and a couple of weeks ago the video to “In The Lights” from the EP. They call their music dream pop, which is a suitable description to these beautiful, grand-sounding and soft pop songs. Here are a couple of songs from the EP, the video I mentioned above and also a new disco-influenced remix signed Ludvig Thunberg.

Leppen – “Iställetförattprata”

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Leppen’s single “Sova“. Today he shows us another song from the upcoming EP “Iställetförattprata” (April 28th), namely the title track. There’s a video to the last single “Sova” too, which I missed the last time..

The Gloria Story – “Born to Lose” – video

A couple of days ago the hard rock band The Gloria Story released the second single from last year’s album “Born to Lose“. They’ve chosen to present the song in this well-cut tour video:

The Shy Lips – “She Was Born In Bahia”

I’m glad that The Shy Lips from Göteborg is back here in the blog with the new single “She Was Born In Bahia”. I find it difficult to defend myself against this, just like with songs I wrote about last year. “Indie rock at it’s best” it says in the promo mail, and I’m inclined to agree with that.

Heroic

JumJum – “Lillebror” – EP

The duo JumJum released their debut EP “Lillebror” (“Little brother”) in December. I wrote about their single “Stannar du stannar jag” earlier, but they had a different band name then. It’s synth pop, somewhat minmalistic and with a nostalgic, a bit melancholic expression. And it’s hard to neglect their videos, videos that emphasize this nostalgic atmosphere with environments and scenes a Swede can relate to in various ways. They’ve made three so far, and here below is the moving but bright video to the title track.

Malin Kay – “End of Story”

Here’s another debut release. It’s Malin Kay, hailing from Umeå, who presents herself with this pop single, “End of Story”:

Teadoro – “Nightsky – Septembersolen”

Teadoro is a band that released their first single today. It may seem a bit odd with a single release in Spring with a song about the September sun, but the music feels rather Spring-like and I can’t help thinking about Ted Gärdestad in a sunny mood.

Heroic – “Voltaire” – video

The rock band Heroic released the video to the song “Voltaire” today, one of two songs they released last Friday. This is also a well produced video, a bit frightening as the singer Oscar Bätz is fighting with his demons.

I Am Super Ape

Sigrin – “Million Dots” – album

Sigrin is what Anna Hansson calls her solo project and recently she released the debut album “Million Dots”. It’s an album that moves somewhere between Americana-influenced singer/songwriter-pop and indie pop, full of beatiful melodies and a comfortable warmth. There’s a fine variation in the arrangements and also in the ambience as she balances between the light and the dark. A quite enjoyable album and an impressive debut. Here are two songs:

Obsi – “She Turns Around”

Obsi is a new band from Göteborg with members from Lo Fi Funk, Augustifamiljen, Lucknow Pact and Fibes Oh Fibes. “She Turns Around” is the name of their debut single, a song that breathes of bossa jazz and a dose of indie. Here it is in a video created with clips from Jiří Trnkas “Ruka” and Eartha Kitt’s video for the turkish folk song “Uska Dara”.

I Am Super Ape – “Animals”

It’s been two years since I wrote about I Am Super Ape, hailing from Malmö. Here they are again in this colourful single and video, “Animals”. The video is produced and directed by Jakob Skote.

Wuthering Height

Kinetics – “The Ocean”

Here’s the third single, “The Ocean”, from the band Kinetics, hailing from Växjö. It’s a dramatic and grand-sounding tune which makes med think of american country-influenced rock. The band is currently working with songs for their debut album.

Nonono – “Hungry Eyes”

The trio Nonono will release their debut album “We Are Only What We Feel” on Monday. The single “Hungry Eyes” is a taste of what is to come, a quite catchy, grand pop track with a great vibe from heavy percussions.

Delorian – “Hide and Seek” – video

The band Delorian are showing us a postapocalyptic Sundsvall in the video to their debut single “Hide and Seek”. The video is a homage to these TV series with low-budget scifi which was produced in the eighties. The song itself, a great song, can also be seen as a celebration of the eighties I guess. You’ll find plenty of references to pop from that decade, in the melodies, in the synth sounds and of course the saxophones.

Wuthering Height – “Two Steps”

Wuthering Height is a band that consist of Marta Pettersson, Simon Häger, Boel Mogensen and Simon Andersson. They released their debut album “Dropped Minds” in January. I haven’t had the time to listen to the entire album yet, but I can show you a taste in the shape of the single “Two Steps”, a joyful and uplifting indie pop with an interesting voice from Marta Pettersson.

On The Cinnamon

Old Amica – “Old Oaken Pond”

The duo Old Amica have been our guests several times before here on Meadowmusic. Now they are preparing to launch a new album, “Fabula”, on the 26th of March. “Old Oaken Pond” is the first glimpse of the album and beside their own special indie-sound there is a nostalgic vibe in this song, as the song title implies. A bit like if  Hotennany Singers made a comeback and started playing folk indie.

Other People – “Somewhere Far Away” – album

Other People is an alias for the composer Jakob Lindhagen and his solo project. His new album is called “Somewhere Far Away”, an instrumental album focusing on Jakob’s minimalistic piano playing. Every tone seems carefully devised in these melancholic melodies, which sometimes are accompanied by a gentle cello or an ambient pad. The ambience and the melodies make me think of Björn J:son Lindhs “Bilder från en ö” and of music from some of the Swedish TV-drama series.

Up The Hill

Up The Hill is a four man strong band, who so far have released an EP with six tracks.  I can’t come up with a band to compare them with as they sound so special. Both in the way they mix their influences and in the way they build the songs. The soulful vocals is a strong characteristic of the songs, but in the end I feel that the songs still have a strong focus on the instrumental parts, where I hear progressive seventies’ vibes, Dire Straits-guitars, blues and folk indie. Quite dynamic songs which build up a strong groove sometimes. Here are two of them:

On the Cinnamon – “Indecency”

When the songwriter Jonas Lindsköld told me about the band On the Cinnamon’s debut single “Indecency”, he also wrote that they sound like their band name. I scratched my head and started wondering if he was referring to “Cinnamon Girl”, because there are certain Neil Young-vibes in the song: the simple sound, the guitars and the touch of Americana. But no, I found the explanation further down in the mail; the bandname was a direct translation of the Swedish expression “(att vara) på kanelen” (an old Swedish expression saying that someone is a bit drunk). I’m not quite sure how I should interpret this either as the song is a charming, warm and close pop song with a certain sheen of unpolished indie. And it fits quite well with the sunny, early-Spring weather we have here now.

Hurula – “22”

Hurula is releasing another single from his upcoming album ”Vi är människorna våra föräldrar varnade oss för”. It’s called “22”, a punkish pop-melodic track with a great rough sound. I really like the chorus, and it’s the best song I’ve heard from Hurula so far.