My 2006

Concerts
The Au Revoir Simone show on November 17 will be a nice ending to an absolutely amazing year of concerts. In total, I spent 22 nights at concerts this year. It is pretty much given that I did not attend any real festival this summer. You find my concert stories in the right column labelled as Concerts.

01 Language of Flowers - May 27 at Mejeriet, Lund
02 Hello Saferide - March 11 at Mejeriet, Lund
03 Like Honey - September 3 at Mejeriet, Lund
04 Belle and Sebastian - May 13 at Kulturbolaget, Malmö
05 Camera Obscura - October 7 at Kulturbolaget, Malmö


Songs
01 Laurel Music - Winter Slow
L A U R E L M U S I C.
Pop hearts never die! I have heard the future and it sounds wonderful. Laurel Music is worth waiting for.

02 Sambassadeur - Marie
I was convinced that Marie was the song of the year when I wrote my half year list. Marie was actually more than a song to me. Things have changed since then and Marie thus only gets an honorable second place on this list. 

03 Language of Flowers - You're The One
My beloved Language of Flowers do not seem in a hurry with the sequel to Songs About You. They have a lot to live up to. With You're The One Language of Flowers show that they can still deliver spellbinding "girl meets boy"-stories. And I listen to every word.

04 Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy
I heard Lips Are Unhappy in early June and thought it was a good pop song, but it would take another month before I really fell in love. Five months later, I am a little sad that there were no promoters in southern Sweden who wanted to set up a show with Ali Howard's band but you can not have everything you want. SHAKE SHIMMY SHIMMY SHAKE SHIMMY.

05 Katie Goes to Tokyo - Alone
Katie has meant more to me than anyone else this year. She was there when I slides and she was still there when my life collapsed. I try to rebuild it, piece by piece. I no longer know what I want but I know that Katie makes it a little easier to wake up in the morning.

06 Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken
07 Hello Saferide - 2006
08 Katie Goes to Tokyo - The Girl Who Ruined Your World
09 Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted
10 Belle and Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
11 Anna Ternheim - Tribute to Linn
12 Mates of State - Beautiful Dreamer
13 The Magic Numbers - Take a Chance 
14 Firefox AK - City to City
15 The Charade - My Song to You
16 Vapnet - Färjemansleden
17 Headlights - TV
18 Morrissey - You Have Killed Me
19 The Pipettes- Because It's Not Love (But It's Still a Feeling)
20 Those Transatlantics - Whiskey and Tea
21 Acid House King - Keep Your Love by The Loveninjas
22 The Essex Green - Penny and Jack
23 Like Honey - New York
24 The Positions - Back to Me
25 The Tidy Ups - Lack of Nourishment


Albums
There seem to be unspoken rules which determine that a year list shall contain 25 albums. That are just too many albums for me. It is rather pointless to list more records than you will remember when you look back on the year later. I present a top10 this year. I could have done a top15 instead, but no more records than that.

01 Katie Goes to Tokyo - Katie Goes to Tokyo
02 The Positions - Bliss!
03 Those Transatlantics - Knocked Out
04 Mates of State - Bring It Back
05 The Charade - A Real Life Drama
06 My Latest Novel - Wolves
07 Anna Ternheim - Separation Road
08 The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
09 Marit Larsen - Under the Surface
10 The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes

Also good: The Besties - Singer, The High Violets - To Where You Are, Math and Physics Club - Math and Physics Club, Ms. John Soda - Notes and the Like, The Weepies - Say I Am You, Firefox AK - Madame Madame, Tilly and the Wall - Bottom of the Barrels.
Not evaluated: The Snow Fairies - Voila!, Friday Bridge, Tralala - Is That The Tralala.


EPs
01 Sambassadeur - Coastal Affairs
02 The Tidy Ups - Dizzy Heights
03 Hello Saferide - Would You Let Me Play This EP Ten Times A Day?
04 Gentle Touch - Gentle Touch
05 The Postal Blue - Road to Happiness

Not evaluated: Lucky Soul.


2007
Next year's best album will most likely be the the sequel to This Night and The Nex. I can not see how any other band would compete with Laurel Music. There is a good chance that all bands on the top3 album list will be sorted under the letter "L". Lucky Soul, Like Honey, and Looker all release debut albums. And although I doubt it there is a possibility that even Language of Flowers are recording a new album. Architecture in Helsinki and Sambassadeur are working on new albums. Shelflife Records returns with new releases.

There is a basis for 2007 to become the best record year of the 2000s.

S Is for SongMeanings

I discovered SongMeanings when a kind soul gave me a link to the lyrics of The Late Great Cassiopia. Since then I always go to SongMeanings in the first place when I search for song lyrics. It is amazing that you can find lyrics of The Field Mice, Heavenly, and Red Sleeping Beauty at the same place. The SongMeanings crew shows it is possible to run a lyric site without turning it into a tasteless space for adverts that flash like a Christmas tree.

I recently created an account at SongMeanings. A friend of mine helped me transcribe the lyrics of Language of Flowers - If It's Not You (mp3) last Saturday. The submitted lyrics were published on SongMeanings a few days later.

I have now added lyrics of all songs on Laurel Music's debut album This Night and the Next. The lyrics should be up on SongMeanings next week.

Laurel Music - Dreams and Lies

It took an extra day, but it was understandable. I killed a dream with one click on send. I hope that she does not hate me. She does not have a reason to do that, but sometimes I get so emotional and overreact. I have not done anything wrong, but I still feel guilty. It is neither about love nor about money, if anyone wonders.

Laurel Music - Dreams and Lies

Dreams and lies. It sounds like my life. When all else is lost only Laurel Music remains. It is October 2006 and Laurel Music helps me to get through my life's most difficult challenge.

Laurel Music - No One Wants Forever #1

Laurel Music - No One Wants Forever #1

The autumn leaves now have the same colours as on the cover of Laurel Music's debut album!

Unfortunately, this fall will not get any more beautiful to me. I have taken decisions which will affect my life. I do not know if I am completely happy with the decisions, but I can not go on pretending that everything is fine when I five days a week feel sad when I wake up just because it is a new day.

There are still a few pleasures left which no one can take away from me. I have ordered a couple of records from Fraction Discs and I will see Anna Ternheim live for the second time on Saturday. The records may arrive on Friday, but that feels far away. First I have to do some important things. Tonight I will write an email which could had decided my life if it was written a few weeks earlier. Now it is just an end of a time that was. We make our choices and we have to live with them. I do not care as much as I should, and it is frightening that things you dreamed of no longer means anything. Tomorrow I will terminate my rental agreement.

Laurel Music - Since You Have Gone

Laurel Music is a dream band. Laurel Music is also the best kept secret of the Swedish pop scene.

The debut album This Night and the Next was released two years ago. This Night and the Next was a 27 minutes and 36 seconds long journey from nowhere to pop heaven. Tobias Isaksson wrote twelve songs that really made me believe in music again. Malin Dahlberg sang with the most beautiful voice in the world.


Lately it has been very quiet on Laurel Music. The latest update on their website is from December last year. The guestbook is closed due to attacks by dreadful spam robots that seem to attack the websites of all bands signed to Labrador Records.

Laurel Music was the opening act to Language of Flowers in Gothenburg in May. I knew about it but did not travel to the show. I still get sad when I think about it. I am hoping for another chance.

Since You Have Gone is taken from the Labrador Records collection The Sound of Young Sweden. A lost song from a band that deserves more fans.