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.
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
