With September coming to a close Andy from Nordic Music Review gives us a final round-up of his favourite track this week. We will continue to keep in touch with Andy and see some future guest posts – but to keep track of his future work make sure you are following @nordicmusicreview
The School Book Depository – ‘Hey Instigator!’
I featured Hangar Nord last week and I was thinking at the time that their track ‘A Thousand Years From Now’reminded me of fellow Swedish project The School Book Depository, and on cue TSBD have arrived with a new single, the 17th (I think) in the lead up to a new album apparently due ‘in the fall’.
‘Hey Instigator!’ is the new track, and it’s about some guy in the US who seems to be trying to stir up the public division – listeners will draw their own conclusions, but personally, I think it’s a reference to the 1851 Portland Rum Revolts. Fredrik Solfors is such a clever songwriter, melancholy-tinged Americana / Indie Pop, always with easy listening melodies and his back catalogue is definitely worth checking out.
The lyrics are pretty pointed too: “a parade through the country, confederate flags, and the Proud Boys still not getting laid”. Or getting any rum, perhaps.
Moron Police – ‘Waiting for Wastelands’
Anyway, all that conveniently brings us on to Moron Police, a Norwegian 4 piece whose 2019 album ‘A Boat on the Sea’ was one of my releases of that year. Now forget the silly name, because there’s way more to these guys than meets the eye, with always interesting songwriting and lyrics courtesy of Sondre Skollevoll and the magical keyboard wizardry of Lars Bjørknes lurking somewhere in the background. Even the artwork is pretty special.
The latest track ‘Waiting for Wastelands’ comes from a forthcoming EP release which they describe as ‘cowboy rock’. That’s actually exactly what it is, and for some reason, it just brings a huge smile to my face, catchy tunes, intricate guitars and I just love the instrumental section at the end – cowboy prog perhaps, now that’s definitely a new genre. A video is due soon, in the meantime just take a listen.
St. Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club – ‘Until We Meet Again’
If nothing else you’ll have to appreciate the quality of the band names this week, and it’s a particularly warm welcome back to St. Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club from Sweden. I definitely need a t-shirt. They’re a Swedish band who describe themselves as a cross between The Jam and Pink Floyd, and they have a pretty extensive back catalogue of EPs and an Album stretching back to 2010, with even a couple of UK tours behind them – all I can do is apologise for not spotting they played Liverpool.
Interesting band this, and new song ‘Until We Meet Again’ is an upbeat tribute to a long lost friend, a nice contrasting mix of bright trumpets, mod styled tunes and anthems, but they have a subtlety to their songwriting too which comes through in the latter part of the song. The video is a great watch too.
Color Dolor – ‘Underwater’
Finnish duo Color Dolor, consisting of Stina Koistinen and fellow musician Leissi, also return this week after announcing they’ll be releasing their 4th album ‘Blurry Things’ at the end of November. Entitled ‘Underwater’ it’s a soft dreamy and delicate song that was written at a time in lockdown when Stina was ‘anxious and short of inspiration’. So they instinctively wrote a song about it, and the whole album is in the same vein, lightly produced, first takes of tracks that they deliberately didn’t over-rehearse.
I can’t think of many bands who write alternative dream pop in quite such a compelling and persuasive manner, just lock the doors, turn their music up loud and let yourself escape from the stresses of the world.
Efterklang – ‘Hold Me Close When You Can’
Just a quick one to finish, because the Danish post-rock trio Efterklang are very well established and probably don’t need too much introduction. Their new track ‘Hold Me Close When You Can’ might take a couple of listens to adjust to the vocals, but it’s really beautifully judged, with sensitive string arrangements, and the overall effect is pretty powerful.
They have a new album due out in October and a full European tour, including dates in the UK next Spring.
Guest Feature by Andy Wors
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