Half year summary 2008

Records

While waiting for the train which will take me north, I take the opportunity to finish my half year summary. Sons and Daughters top my album list. The introductory song Gilt Complex defines the entire record just as Lust in the Movies set the bar for The Long Blondes' debut album Someone to Drive You Home.
Tilly and the Wall's opening six minutes on the new album O sums up the band. It is possible that it will change if I listen more, but I now feel that O quality-wise is more consistent than the band's previous records. And did I say that Pot Kettle Black is wonderful? Speaking of reliability, Mates of State delivers as usual. Their fifth album Re-Arrange Us is not as good as the brilliant Bring It Back, but still a given on this list.

1. Sons and Daughers - This Gift
2. Tilly and the Wall - O
3. The School - Let It Slip EP
4. Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
5. The Rosie Taylor Project - This City Draws Maps

Also good: Cloetta Paris - Secret Eyes, Sad Day for Puppets - Just Like a Ghost, M83 - Saturdays = Youth, Headlights - Some Racing Some Stopping, Ally Kerr - Off the Radar.


Other
This year's best news is that Kathleen Bracken plays with Those Transatlantics again. Beyond that there are many other music-related things which made me happy. Some old and some new. I come to think about this right now:

Aberdeen (band)
Minipop (band)
El Perro del Mar (concert at Mejeriet)
Bruce Springsteen (concert at Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg on July 5)
Katie Goes to Tokyo - Big City (song)
Sad Day for Puppets - Hush (song)

Review: The School - Let It Slip EP

Placed as tenth and eleventh on my year list of 2007, Let It Slip and You'll Never Notice Me were both fantastic up beat songs by previously unknown bands. The School and The Garlands have both released an EP this year, but that is probably the only thing that still is common in the respective bands' careers.

The Garlands' self-titled EP was another Swedish contribution to the Cloudberry Records catalogue. The four tracks are all fine, but it would had been more interesting if Roger Gunnarsson and Christin Wolderth instead wrote a new hit.

Liz Hunt's The School are new label mates with Camera Obscura and Lucky Soul on Elefant Records (Lucky Soul also release their records on their own label Ruffa Lane Records), which is funny because these were the bands I came to think about immediately the first time I heard Let It Slip in the end of last year.

The EP Let It Slip was released on June 16 and lives up to all expectations. The EP balances on the thin line between crystal clear sound and overproduction, ends up at the wrong side a couple of times, but still gets away with because Liz sings the way she does. The title track is rearranged with beautiful backing vocals and strings, but the third song I Want You Back is the on which knocks me. I Want You Back really begins like a fairy tale with the line Once upon a time. I know when the music stops that this is the best song of the year so far. The EP ends in the best of manner with I Don't Believe in Love, a beautiful song about miserable love with a narrative that shifts between two different voices.

The School - Let It Slip

I never went to the Another Sunny Day and The Icicles show in Malmö. I am not overly sorry for that. For once, I feel there is an excess of good concerts in the region. This Friday, The Sunny Street and Punky's Dilemma come to Lund and that will be my last time in the DJ booth at Blekingska. I really look forward to that.

There seem to pop up small amazing bands everywhere all the time. Today's trip goes to Wales and Cardiff where we find The School, a mini-Lucky Soul who have listened to Camera Obscura. But why compare with other bands when the song Let It Slip speaks for itself?