Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
As you may recall, we’re fans of JUNODEF. In fact, we’d even go so far as to say that its track “Heights,” which we wrote about late last year, was one of our favorite songs of 2018. JUNODEF has now followed “Heights” with new single “The Things In Front Of Me,” which is somehow even […]
Augustine cares not about polish, but you might not know it from the video for his song “Luzon.” Throughout the video, the Swedish singer-songwriter (whose last name isn’t included in any of his press materials) traverses some of the most gorgeous streets, lined with rows of colorful homes, you’ll see in any recent music video. […]
Although “Floating” is the second song that Swedish duo Slide has ever released, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking these two have been around much longer. “Floating” sounds like a relic from the 2008-2010 era, around which time both Vampire Weekend and Grizzly Bear were growing into the mainstream-but-indie names they are today. On “Floating,” […]
Last year, on Halloween, we posted Swedish dream pop band ViVii‘s song “Suckerpunch.” It was appropriately ghostly for the occasion. “Love Love Love,” the band’s newest single from its forthcoming self-titled debut album (out March 15), is similarly haunting. That said, it’s not as explicitly dejected as “Suckerpunch” is. Emil Jonsson’s deep voice and Caroline […]
On the artwork for Swedish artist Merely‘s upcoming third album, Hatching the Egg (out Friday on YEAR0001), a red-black background object is rendered so blurrily it’s indiscernible. The music that Kristina Florell makes as Merely has precisely the opposite charm: her redolent dream pop is of a high-definition caliber, one that employs ambient sounds for lucidity rather than for fog. […]
Congrats to Signe for making history! Her newest single, “Your Game,” is the inaugural single for Diamond Club Sweden. If you’ve followed us at all over the years, you’re familiar with our love for Diamond Club, the Norwegian singles label that Brilliance (another one of our favorite Norwegian labels) runs. With Signe, Diamond Club is […]
Based on its name, one might expect Gothenburg, Sweden to be the most goth-friendly city in the world. Think drinking establishments drenched in darkness and blasting the Sisters of Mercy, a statue of Robert Smith in the main square, and coffee only served black. Research proves this idea unfortunately wrong: Gothenburg is instead best known […]
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 […]