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.
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
Ok, I’m in Brighton at The Great Escape and the UK summer that seemed to have started out so nicely a week ago has been replaced with a chill and depressing overcast. But what better way to brighten up my dampen spirits than to see the band who have done one of my favourite albums of 2008! Envelopes! They played at 11 pm in a dingy pub called Hectors House (where I last year, also at The Great Escape, saw one of the worst gigs of my life – the pathetic excuse for a band called Palladium was the "band" "playing"). The place was packed and I’d drunk a beer or two so I was really in the mood for some fantastic quirky indie. Unfortunately the sound was appalling, the vocals could hardly be heard and the rest just sounded messy. Audrey (the band’s female singer) looked grumpy throughout the gig, which is always a downer, and I think they forgot to play some of their best songs! I’d brought a friend along after telling her how amazing Envelopes are, so it was a bit annoying that they couldn’t live up to my precious hype. They were actually the band I wanted to see the most at TGE. Hopefully they’ll be better next time I see them or maybe they're just a band that should only been heard and not seen.
Camden Crawl and The Great Escape – just not good enough!
If you’re in the mood to combine a festival experience with seeing some great new Swedish bands, Camden Crawl in London (18 – 19 April) and The Great Escape in Brighton (15 – 17 May) are not exactly ideal. Two fantastic Swedish acts play Camden Crawl – Lykke Li and Pacific!, but the only Swedish band worth seeing at Camden Crawl – Envelopes – are not even 100% Swedish. I’m going to stay home and sulk!
One of the best albums released this year is by a band that consists mostly of Swedish members (ie not Razorlight or The Hoosiers – yuck!), hence me writing about them here. The band in question is Envelopes, and the record's called "Here comes the wind". You might have heard of them, some people liked their first album and there was a bit of a buzz that unfortunately didn't make them superstars. Now they've got a second album out and it's absolutely brilliant, I tell you! Fantastic! It's quirky, a bit different and maybe a bit unconventional, but there's still a pop sensibility to it (I wouldn’t like it if it was way too weird). Cute lo-fi feel to the whole thing too. Not only have they made an outright amazing album, they're also coming to the UK in May to show it all off. Here are the tour dates and a song from an album that is very likely to end up in my top 5 (Swedish and non-Swedish) album list of 2008.
10 May Proud Galleries, London 11 May Joshua Brookes, Manchester 12 May Cumberland Arms, Newcastle 13 May The Ark, Edinburgh 14 May Escobar, Wakefield 15 May The Great Escape, Brighton
