Greatness From Sweden

Again, I have a million things to write about. I wouldn't want to keep it too brief but I may not have a choice. Better say things briefly than not at all...

First of all, something I have been wanting to mention for quite some time. If you already haven't, do yourself a favor and check out the latest from the Swedish power pop front. The Genuine Fakes is a new band and based on everything I've heard from them they are definitely worth some serious attention.

A couple of videos for starters. The first one, I Don't Want It: classic 90s power pop sound á la the Posies, or Popsicle. Loud, sweet, catchy as hell! Also, extra points for great dancing in the video.. Nice video, all in all.

Then, When Reality Hits You: another really catchy tune, featuring the guys... shaving.

The Genuine Fakes have also made a cover version of Beyoncé's song Irreplaceable. What can I say... It's really good! It can be heard at MySpace, for instance. The release date for the Fakes debut album, which is called The Striped Album, is very soon, December the 1st.

The Genuine Fakes at MySpace
Official website
The Striped Album site

Irreplaceable Pop

I don’t know where exactly I found out about this cool Swedish pop band Popsicle, but it’s a good thing I did. So far I’ve only checked out their first album Lacquer (1992) but man.. It’s good. Popsicle was a part of the great Swedish indie wave of the 90s. Popsicle came from Piteå and was active from 1991 to 1999. The group released a total of four albums, one mini-album, and a 2-disc best-of collection called The Good Side of Popsicle was also released in 2005.

The group’s sound seems to be based on basic Posies-pop with an addition of jangle guitars and noisy shoegaze elements. The result is interesting and sounds brilliant - some songs on Lacquer are, in fact, very loud and fast, resulting in totally manic, hyper-energetic feel. The mania is balanced nicely by Andreas Mattsson’s calm, whispering TFC-esque vocals that, on the other hand, enhance the hypnotic feel of songs like Undulate (what a beautiful song!) and Pale Honey. The band’s two lead singers have quite different voices which makes the music more interesting. I enjoy both Mattsson’s and Fredrik Norberg’s vocals. Norberg sounds quite a lot like Sloan’s Jay Ferguson, I think.

It took a while before I was able to listen from track 2 (Popcorn) forwards – I just loved the song so much! Hey Princess is one of the group’s most famous songs, and it surely is good. Norberg sings generally more melancholic and bittersweet songs than Mattsson. She and Irreplaceable, in addition to Popcorn, are very nice songs. Everything on this album is good. It’s such a joy to listen to this kind of albums.

A quick check at YouTube revealed that Andreas Mattsson now has a solo career. There are some songs and videos there to be seen. Popsicle samples are also best found at YouTube.

Popsicle videos at YouTube