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Swedish pop takes over YLP with Peter Moren, El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li.

There's something about contemporary Swedish pop music that's just a little bit different from the way the rest of the world approaches the genre. No, I'm not talking about ABBA; rather, I'm referring to the new wave of Swedish musicians drawing from all aspects of the last 40 years of English-language popular music to write their own gorgeous songs. Perhaps it's due in part to their high-standard of living, or perhaps it's due to the Scandinavian climate, but these Swedish pop singer-songwriters all add a dose of bittersweet, world-weary melancholy to their sweet, piano and vocal-driven melodies, each in their own unique manner.

Peter Moren – Social Competence - The Peter of Peter Bjorn and John offers a John Lennon-esque tune, complete with his dead ringer vocals, piano and acoustic guitar. By the second and third verses, the tune is further fleshed out with handclaps and drums, and finally caps off with a harmonica solo. While "Social Competence" is more mellow than most of Peter Bjorn and John's songs, it's more than clear that the tune is no mere throwaway track, and that Moren is far from being the weak link in the trio.

The Last Tycoon is out now on Quarterstick.


El Perro Del Mar – How Did We Forget - The Gothenburg-based solo project of Sarah Assbring is pretty much a 101 lesson on the right way to write a pop song. With "How Did We Forget," El Perro Del Mar combines high-pitched, layered background vocals, a slow doo-wop beat, somber female vocals, guitar, a walking bassline and horns into a lush, almost dreamlike experience. In essence, "How Did We Forget" takes the best parts of 60's Phil Spector-produced pop and modern indie pop to create something both beautiful and timeless.

From The Valley To The Stars is out now on Control Group.

Lykke Li – Breaking It Up - While Lykke Li's "Breaking It Up" draws from a similar palette of sounds as Peter Moren and El Perro Del Mar, Li offers a songwriting twist all her own. "Breaking It Up" finds Li's sweet voice backed with layered vocals, piano, handclaps, and electronic drums. But rather than crafting bright, sunshine pop, the resulting track has more in common with electrontic music and soul, and maintains an underlying tension amid the surprising energy of the song.

Youth Novels is out now on LL Recordings.

Peter Moren – Social Competence
El Perro Del Mar – How Did We Forget
Lykke Li – Breaking It Up

PS: If you're in the Chicagoland area on the 12th, you can see El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li perform live at Schubas.

Posted by Jason Prechtel on May 09, 2008 @ 12:00 am