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.
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.
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
The fantastic "Ride my wild heart" is the new Moto Boysingle. The video is a pretty spaced out affair, there are some F.W. Murnau vibes in there, and a big swan. I like it, it's very suitable for the song and the dreamlike visuals complement the music nicely. Man, I just love Moto Boy to bits! I wish that this was a "normal" single and not just an mp3 single, so that there would be a new b-side or something. I want more songs! I want three more albums! Four! Five! I lent his CD together with the new Vampire Weekend CD to a girl at work who was going to holiday, and today she came back and said she wasn't too keen on Vampire Weekend but she'd been listening to Moto Boy like crazy. Hooray! I love when you lend someone something (book, dvd, CD) and they end up liking it as much as you do. So often I lend people stuff that I cherish, and they give it back saying something like "Hmmmmm, it was OK". ARGH! Anyway, that's enough of my morning rant about lending stuff to people.
Don't forget Moto Boy's coming to London to play some shows next month to play some shows. Here are the dates.
Wednesday 21 May – Love is All – Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
Friday 23 May – Moto Boy – Monto Water Rats
Saturday 24 May – Moto Boy – The Barfly
Sunday 25 May – Moto Boy – Monto Water Rats
Ok, three gigs with Moto Boy might be a bit much (I hope he'll be as amazing live as I imagine), maybe choose just two of them. Anyway, the Love is All gig will be fantastic, and so will Jens Lekman's. We know this for sure.
On 11 January, after hearing “Young love”, I wrote about Moto Boy’s upcoming album that I hoped it’d “be the first great album of 2008”. And guess what? My wish was fulfilled! It really is one of the best albums of this year. Buy it! It’s fantastic and worth every penny spent on it. It's a bit like Antony & the Johnsons or Rufus Wainwright, with lovely melodies and such a warmth throughout all the 11 songs that it will make you not want to listen to anything else until summer starts, when you can start to listen to happier tracks during the day and leave Moto Boy for all evenings and rainy days (guess that’ll be almost every day then, except when you go away on holiday in Costa Rica). Also, here are some great news – Moto Boy is coming to the UK for three shows in May! They’re unfortunately all London shows, but if you live near London I bet it’ll be worth the £10 you’ll spend on a train ticket to come and see him. I’ve never seen him live myself, but judging from the clips on youtube, it’s going to be amazing. I believe it’ll just be him and an electric guitar. That’ll do for me. Goddamn, I'm looking forward to these dates so much I feel like Cartman waiting for the Wii to be released. Don't forget to bring a hankie (or a towel).
Friday 23 May 2008 – Monto Water Rats, London Saturday 24 May 2008 – The Barfly, Camden, London Sunday 25 May 2008 – Monto Water Rats, London
Everyone seems to love this song. Fair play, it’s a sweet song with a crooner quality à la Rufus Wainwright, but less annoying and better! His album is out next week, let's hope it'll be the first great album of 2008. The video is perhaps not the most exciting thing I’ve laid my eyes on though.
