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.
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
Hey! Bank holiday weekend coming up! Hey! Before you go and get thrashed, you should check out this new Swedish artist who is a real gem. His name is Joel Almeand he’s signed to The Tough Alliance’s label Sincerely yours, but he sounds nothing like TTA (surprise!). Instead of electro with cocky lyrics we get string-laden crooner-like music with very romantic (I guess TTA can be quite romantic at times) lyrics mostly about relationships gone bad. It’s quite upbeat in places, which makes me feel like dancing like an old man, and Alme’s got a voice to die for. It sounds a bit like Weeping Willows, but Weeping Willows, in my opinion, are yet to make an album as accomplished as “Masters of ceremonies” (which is the name of Alme’s debut album) - an opinon that could get me in trouble with a whole bunch of sad and lonely older Swedish men who wear their hearts on top of their quiffs. I really like the album, but I’m such an easy target for this type of music, there’s no way I can resist it now matter how hard I try. Hold on, I need to make myself clear to avoid any confusion – Joel Alme’s album “Master of ceremonies” is nothing gorgeous! Buy the album here. Listen to one of the better songs from the album below (or more on his myspace). Hopefully he’ll come to the UK soon to play some shows. I bet it’ll take a while though.
