Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday Music #4 (Fever Ray, Cecilia Nordlund)
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Today's artists have a few things in common:
- They're from Sweden, and
- I had no idea of their existence before a few days ago
Well, sort of. Cecilia Nordlund has a few six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon-except-in-music-and-without-Kevin-Bacon connections to Swedish singer-songwriter Katharina Nuttall, who I do know about, and Fever Ray is one half of The Knife. Karin Andersson, to be exact, who apparently released a solo album for download (the physical version appears in a few months).
Musically, Fever Ray isn't all that much of a departure from her old group. Some have described her work as The Knife with the party music (well, as much as they ever had) leeched out, but it's more than that. It's the music that plays after the machines have pureed all the parties into pulp. On the lead single, "If I Had A Heart," low strings mutter across the landscape and voices circle them, trying to regain the life they usurped. "If I had a voice, I could sing," one laments,
Listen here.
Distinctive as her vocals are, Karin Andersson isn't the only vocalist on the album. On one track, fellow Swedish singer-songwriter Cecilia Nordlund guests. Turns out she's equally amazing. She's been in several different groups, but my favorite is the Monkeystrikes (named because, in Cecilia's words, listening to their music makes you feel like you've been slapped in the face by a monkey). For a reference, imagine Carina Round's _Slow Motion Addict_ without any involvement by Glen Ballard, and you'll be almost there.
Everything on their page is great, but "Serial Faller in Lover" is especially so. At the beginning, it sounds like a sweet love song, all jangly guitars and sunshine. Cecilia's spiky vocals on the verses, however, suggest that more is going on, and then you realize that she's singing lyrics like "If you reject my love, I'll put a hole in your brain, shoot off a leg, perhaps make you blind." The "serial" in the title is no accident; this isn't a love song after all, but one of sociopathic obsession - but then, how often does the media make that distinction? And it sounds great, doesn't it?
You can find the album from various venues to download (legally), and I've found one Swedish site that carries it.
Listen here.
Monkeystrikes has, unfortunately, disbanded; their official site is more or less a 404. Not to worry, though - Cecilia Nordlund's releasing a solo album under the name Cilihili. The song (and its remix) on her Myspace has to be one of the most compelling rock songs and/or dance remixes about porn-induced computer viruses.
(Extra points, too, for the picture of her peeking out from the center of a sunflower.)
Listen here.
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