Stop Us Not
Best Swedish Songs of 2008

01. Håkan Hellström - Försent för Edelweiss
02. Håkan Hellström - Jag vet inte vem jag är men jag vet att jag är din
If all of Hellström's latest album would have been as good as the two above songs, it'd probably be one of the best albums of all time. Now it had too many silly prog songs on it, but he still managed to cram a handful of amazing songs onto it.


03. Afasi & Filthy - Jobb
"Fläcken" is the best Swedish rap album in some time, and "Jobb" is the best song from that record.


04. Markus Krunegård - Jag Är En Vampyr
Krunegård's album was not as patchy as Hellström's, or his old band Laakso's, and "Jag Är En Vampyr" was one of my favourite songs of the year. I'm currently addicted to the brilliant remix by Detektivbyrån.


05. Lykke Li - Little Bit
There's no denying that Lykke Li is a star - her debut album is ace and she's great live. If I had to choose one song from her album, "Little Bit" is the track that probably made me the Lykke Li fan I am today.


06. Frida Hyvönen - Dirty Dancing
After last year's odd but intriguing "Pudel" mini album, Hyvönen delivered a strange and beautiful second album. "Dirty Dancing" is something of the jevel in the album's crown.


07. Moto Boy - Young Love
It's a shame that Moto Boy didn't make a bigger impact upon the world, not even Sweden really took much notice. Their loss, I say!


08. Alexis Weak - Strawberry Rapclash Remix
Ok, I'm aware that it's a bit cheeky calling this a song by Alexis Weak when in fact it's a remix of an Adrian Lux song. Alexis Weak is not even the only rapper on it (perhaps he didn't do the remix either, I don't know), but I'm addicted to Alexis Weak and with hardly no releases from him this year, I've listened to this song an insane amount.


09. Envelopes - I'd Like 2 C U
I must say that after being in love with their album and then seeing them live and not being too impressed, I lost a bit of interest in Envelopes. Their album is nevertheless a really great album, full of playful songs that leap out of the stereo and straight into whatever part of your brain that makes you smile.


10. Paragon - Aavisst
Paragon's album "Glöd" could have been one of the biggest disappointments of the year, and only because "Aavisst" that I heard long before the album came out was such a banging track. This year's Swedish One Hit Wonder.

MP3: Best Swedish Songs of 2008 Mix

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By Stop Us Not
On 20 December 2008
At 10:00 am
Pitchfork's favourite Swedish tracks from 2008
1. Lykke Li Little Bit
2. The Tough Alliance Lucky
3. Lykke Li Dance, Dance, Dance
4. Love is All Wishing well

Whole (international) list here.

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By Stop Us Not
On 17 December 2008
At 5:17 pm
Hot tip #1 for 2009 - The Dora Steins
Apparently The Dora Steins are "in talks" with The Killers' management. I don't really know what that means in terms of future / current success, but I guess it's a pretty big deal for a small Swedish demo band to do. Either way, I've been listening to their song "Stay" a lot this year. The Dora Steins sound a little bit like Shout Out Louds but more mainstream and less quirky. Listen to below song and get ready to tell all your mates in a few weeks / months how you were listening to The 'Steins way back in 2008.

MP3: The Dora Steins - Stay

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By Stop Us Not
On 16 December 2008
At 10:56 am
Sorry, should really have posted a link to that Peter, Bjorn and John song...
MP3: Peter, Bjorn and John - Hey (shut the fuck up boy)

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By Stop Us Not
On 15 December 2008
At 4:11 pm
Check out the new Peter, Bjorn & John song...
... over at Pasta Primevera!

I really like it, it's got a nice groove to it. Video is bonkers though.

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By Stop Us Not
On
At 3:17 pm
Charming video of Lykke Li performing "Dance dance dance" .


(from Blogotheque)

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By Stop Us Not
On 11 December 2008
At 10:30 am
Emmaboda 2009 - good start!
The Emmaboda Festival (in Sweden) is a great little festival that I can highly recommend to everyone who's more into smaller festivals than Reading / Glasto / etc. Next year's edition takes place 30 June - 1 August 2009. The atmosphere at the festival is very relaxed and the crowd consists mostly of well behaved Swedish tweenagers. I've seen some great shows there in the past, but for some reason I haven't gone for a a few years. Today they announced their first batch of the line-up, and it's a cracker!

Nordpolen: A bit like TTA but with Swedish vocals!
Markus Krunegård: From Laakso who released a great solo album earlier this year (singing in Swedish).
Parken: Great indie pop!
Joel Alme: One of my favourite new artists of 2008 - competing with Moto Boy in the melting hearts department.

+ Crystal Castles and Navid Modiri och Gudarna

Yep, I think I will have to go to the next year's edition.

MP3: Nordpolen - Skimret
Mp3: Markus Krunegård - Jag är en vampyr (Detektivbyrån remix)
Mp3: Parken - Jag har varit vilse Lisa
Mp3: Joel Alme - When the moon shakes

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By Stop Us Not
On 10 December 2008
At 1:17 pm
Yuletide greeting from TIAC
The Hives are not the only Swedish artist to release a Christmas song, now electro duo TIAC (who, to be blunt, sound a bit like TTA but not as good) have released a song called "It's Christmas (but not for you)" as a free download (see below). You can also download the MP3 with the high res artwork here. Does anyone do that? I mean, why would you want the artwork for an MP3? Am I missing something here? Quite a few labels and artists seem to provide this little extra service. Is it to make it as more of an official release, and set it apart from a run-of-the-mill MP3 blog post? It's kind of cute, but I don't really see the point of it. Anyhow, I'll leave all that to the labels - I shouldn't really complain when they're giving away music for free. "It's Christmas (but not for you)" is a neat little Christmas song, that plods along just fine and I wouldn't mind having it playing in the background while sitting in my ugly black leather sofa, cracking nuts and drinking whiskey, come the Holiday.

MP3: TIAC - Now it's Christmas (but not for you)

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By Stop Us Not
On 9 December 2008
At 10:15 am
New Moto Boy EP
Moto Boy - one of my favourite new artists of 2008 released a new EP last week called "For Martha". The EP consists of 5 tracks with one new song and four covers (I believe he played a couple of them live when he was in London earlier this year). Buy the EP here. If you haven't heard Moto Boy before I think you should go to his Myspace page now or download the track below. He's got a voice that makes my knees weak, and he writes the most romantic songs you'll ever hear.

MP3: Moto Boy - I miss you baby

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By Stop Us Not
On 8 December 2008
At 3:24 pm
A good EP by The Fine Arts Showcase
Adrian Recordings and (or?) The Fine Arts Showcase (aka Gustaf Kjellvander aka Christian Kjellvander's brother) has done "a Radiohead-lite" and offered up TFAS' new EP "Friday on my knees" as a free download. You can also buy the mp3s or buy the 12" vinyl. I like TFAS and have been a fan for a few years (he did a great album with his brother under the name of Songs of Soil eight years ago). I wasn't too keen on his Rough Bunnies cover album though, but "Modern love" from that record is great (get it below, it's also on "Friday on my knees"). TFAS is quite an overlooked artist and I hope that one of these days he'll get the fame he deserves.

MP3: The Fine Arts Showcase - Modern Love

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By Stop Us Not
On 2 December 2008
At 1:53 pm
DYNO - maybe just a bit too fluffy pop for me ...
The first time (ie earlier today) I heard DYNO's "Don't speak love" I thought it sounded great, but now I'm already getting a bit sick of it. It's a great pop song though and I can radio picking up on it, and maybe they will play it at those discos where people get wasted and dance all night. Who knows. Anyway, it's a bit of throwaway fun in cold and dark December.

MP3: DYNO - Don't speak love

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By Stop Us Not
On 1 December 2008
At 6:51 pm
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