Once again, Sweden hits the sweet spot
Dec. 7, 2007
Much has been made in the past few years about the influx of great pop music from Sweden. Bands such as The Cardigans, Shout Out Louds, Love is All and Jose Gonzalez have all released well-received albums within the last three to four years.
The glut of fantastic releases has only picked up in the past 18 months. 2006 saw both a beautifully icy record from the electro duo The Knife and Writer's Block, the splendid, stately pop record from the oddly semi-famous threesome Peter Bjorn and John. And this year, Jens Lekman released his stunning second album Night Falls Over Kortedala, which debuted at No. 1 in Sweden.
2007, however, belongs to the small Gothenburg-based label Sincerely Yours, though you sadly haven't heard much about it. Childhood friends Henning Furst and Eric Burgland run the label, and they also are the duo behind the label's real breakthrough group, The Tough Alliance. TTA (as they're usually called) has made some waves on the blogs this year with 2006's New Waves EP and this year's A New Chance full-length. A New Chance got lost in the review shuffle at this publication, but you'd be remiss not to seek it out.
This year's best release on Sincerely Yours isn't A New Chance, though. It's a 16-minute EP from Air France. What I know about Air France amounts to this: they released an EP called On Trade Winds via Sincerely Yours on Sept. 27, and I bought it digitally from the label's Web site because I couldn't find a torrent online. Also, Air France sells customized wine. I don't know if Air France is a dude or a group or a computer program or a plate of toast.
The Web page for On Trade Winds only gives a quote: "I wanted to explode, light the sky for an instant and disappear." That, according to IMDB.com, comes from the 1985 Japanese film "Mishima." If Air France is using the quote to say that they wanted to make one quick but salient mark on whatever the music world is then they've succeeded with the way-too-short On Trade Winds.
The EP opens with "Introduction," a sleek 1:36-long number that sounds like a snippet from the buildup of a beach-disco song. Its lone sounds are whooshing synths, airy vocals and a great bongo pattern that sounds like every other bongo pattern but is still glorious.
That segues into "Karibien," the record's first proper song. "Karibien" is also the only song on the record to really go for the jugular. Its thumping 4/4 beat slowly builds momentum to create a take-your-breath-away moment in the song's middle.
"Beach Party" again uses bongos and twinkling synths, but augments them with found sounds to give the effect of listening to music on an actual beach and not being able to drown out the outside noise. It's what Panda Bear attempted with this year's Person Pitch but only achieved in doses.
The finale, "Never Content," is the "light in the sky." It conjures the sound of another great new disco band, Studio, drowning its vocals in squiggly guitar noodles, but this time adding a true pop moment: a pained, stabbing piano refrain.
Taken at once, the 16-minute EP is like one long, warm hug. It just started to snow 20 minutes ago. What more would you want?
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