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.
Ok, Perez Hilton is going crazy about Swedish rapper Adam Tensta at the moment. Adam Tensta is OK, I mean, there are about 2-3 good songs on his album from last year, but if you want a fantastic Swedish rap album you need to go to Afasi & Filthy and their "Fläcken" which I liked a lot in the beginning (read here) but that I now love like crazy. Their last two singles were "Glider" and "Jobb" (the latter is my favourite song of the album), and unfortunately both those videos (check them out here, and here) were better than the Sverigetrotters video (see below). I doubt Afasi & Filthy ever will come to the UK to play, I can't remember ever seeing any Swedish rap artist on a stage in the UK, which isn't any mystery really. Come to think of it, I haven't seen that many bands singing in Swedish over here either, but if it works for Dungen why not for A&F, huh? Whether or not we'll get to see them live, fact remains - they've done the best Swedish hiphop record ever.
01. Vapnet – Döda fallet I haven’t seen Pitchfork give this album a 9.6 review yet. What’s going on? Have they lost their copy of the album? It took me some time to get into this, but now it’s like potatoes to me – great, versatile and very secure (like an old friend).
02. Moto Boy – Moto Boy Best new artist of the year! Moto Boy came from nowhere and released the most beautiful album I’ve heard in a long time. His live show was also magnificent (what a charming man!).
03. Envelopes – Here comes the wind I stopped listened to this after I saw them do a disappointing show last month, but before that I played it every day for weeks and weeks. There are so many great songs on here, and I just can’t resist that lo-fi charm!
04. Joel Alme – A master of ceremonies If you don’t like The Smiths or crooners, you might want to avoid this one. If you do like The Smiths and crooners, this will be like audio gold for you (I obviously belong to the latter category of people).
05. Juvelen – 1 I refuse to not mention Juvelen in the same sentence as Prince, but that doesn’t stop his music from sounding fresh and modern, and there are some real slick hits on his debut album.
06. Markus Krunegård – Markusevangeliet You could make a very good compilation CD with Laakso, but so far they’ve failed to make a consistently amazing album, so I was rather surprised with how good singer Markus Krunegård’s debut was.
07. Lykke Li – Youth novels Hype-hoopla! Ok, this is not as amazing as it should be, but still – it’s a fine, fine album. She’s even better live, that where she shines.
08. Pacific! – Reveries The singles that have been released from this album are all astonishing, the rest is ok. Still, half of the songs being top notch, and the rest average make for a bloody great album.
09. Afasi & Filthy – Fläcken Swedish hiphop album of the year, and sometimes I wish they’d rap in English so I could share it with my non-Swedish friends without them saying “It sounds great, but I really wish I could understand what they’re rapping about”. Someone called these guys Sweden’s Lil’ Waynes, which is a charming and somewhat fitting description. Nice grooves!
10. Håkan Hellström – Försent för edelweiss Lots of people love this but in my opinion Hellström’s latest album is the weakest one of his career – there’s just too much lame progrock on it! There are some corkers on here though, so there future is still looking bright.
Disappointments of the first half of 2008 Looptroop Rockers – Good things With pre-released MP3s “The Building” and “Marinate” my hopes were sky high! They all fell flat.
El Perro Del Mar – From the valley to the stars Where have the great melodies gone?
Albums from the first half of 2008 that might be great, but I need to listen to them properly before I can pass judgement
Speedmarket Avenue – Way better now Niccokick – The good times we shared , were they so bad Gentle Touch – In memory of savannah Alf – Tivoliv
Listening to Afasi & Filthy while waiting for Weezy
While counting down the days until Lil Wayne drops “Tha Carter III” , I’m quenching my thirst for Southern-sounding hiphop with Swedish duo Afasi & Filthy. They’re from Uppsala (north of Stockholm), Afasi is the rapper and Filthy the producer and their debut album “Fläcken” came out earlier this month. They’ve been around for a while releasing singles, mixtapes, producing (last year Filthy produced the amazing “Vad e det för mode” by Ison & Fille), doing remixes, etc, although for some reason they haven’t done a “proper” album until now. “Fläcken” is quite nice, I like three quarters of it, and love one quarter of it. There are some too reggae sounding songs on it that I tend to skip, but Afasi’s got a good flow and the beats are better than average. “Jobb” and “Benen på ryggen” (with Looptroop Rocker’s Promoe doing a magnificent verse) are my favourite songs on the album. I think I might go back to them in the future but perhaps not to the whole album. Listen below! Oh yeah, they rap in Swedish, by the way.
