Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
It’s not at all difficult to understand what Raimond Dagfjäll says when he sings, but the lyric video for his song “Fever Dream,” the title track of his newest EP as Rain on Monday, is far from unnecessary. In the video, the song’s lyrics appear in blocky text against grainy, slowly-moving bays of static, and this combination […]
Madeleine Grace is a Swedish/Congolese singer whose voice boasts the suppleness and heavenly aura of R&B luminaries. She uses this vocal talent to great effect on her recent single “Tombé,” which skews ever so slightly towards the realm of dancefloor bangers. The song initially lights up with a shimmering, radial melody that remains consistent throughout […]
Endings are seldom appreciated unless they’re immediately succeeded by the chance of renewal or rebirth. Both a TV finale and New Year’s Eve suggest the closing of a chapter, sometimes involving the loss of something special; only the latter, though, comes with the prospect of a new chapter. Though realistic hope for a new beginning […]
Ah, winter. It’s that wonderful time of the year when all the trees die, hot chocolate sales soar, and the mere thought of going outside sends shivers down the spine. During this grim, frostbitten season, it’s probably best not to set outside at all, instead clinging to blankets upon blankets and playing some wintery tunes […]
Although psychedelic music doesn’t always need vocals—think about the many endless instrumental interludes that defined psych rock’s earliest days—to convey the sense of wonder, joy, and innocence that drugs can incite, sometimes, vocals can reveal hallucinatory depths otherwise inaccessible. Swedish/Norwegian duo Lerin/Hystad understands this vocal-instrumental balance quite well: Starmap, its newest album, is its first to feature vocals. […]
When you think of hotbeds for indie rock music motivated by loud guitars, cheap weed, and skateboarding, what places come to mind? California? Boston? Gothenburg? Okay, maybe not the last one, but MAUER, a new foursome out of the Western Swedish city, is trying its best to change that. With its newest single, “Furniture,” MAUER […]
Sweden’s answer to SOPHIE has arrived, and she sounds amazing. Meet COBRAH, the newest purveyor of the high-sheen, PVC-and-latex-soaked visuals and sounds that SOPHIE introduced in 2013 to mass acclaim, a wave of soundalikes, and production credits for mainstream pop and hip-hop artists. COBRAH is more than good enough at this style to achieve similar […]
Swedish-British duo Girl Crush knows a thing or two about balance. Its newest single, “Radio Silence,” walks many tightropes. There’s the line between upbeat, vibrant, high-sheen production and EDM’s nails-on-chalkboard digital surges. Between enticing, nasal, gorgeous singing and sneering, giving-it-all-too-much belting. Insightful and cloying lyrical material. Every time, Girl Crush is on the right side […]
In a just world, Swedish quartet KÅRP would be as massively popular as its obvious influences are. Then again, “obvious influences” is an imperfect phrase in regards to KÅRP; although the band’s reverence of Robyn, The Knife, and Lykke Li are about as blatant as signs of decay on an avocado, there is just no one […]
There’s no doubt about it: the ‘80s are back in. You can buy Stranger Things graphic tees at Wal-Mart. Magnum P.I. and Lethal Weapon reboots air weekly on network television. Seemingly every band in sight is dropping its guitars and putting batteries back into its vintage Yamahas. While it might feel like the ‘80s pop […]