Music Tuesday: Lemonade, The Sound of Sweden, & Todd Terje
The Sound of Sweden
Swedes have always had some kind of mystical hold on pop music. Yes, ABBA may have forged the way, but more recently, artists like Robyn and Lykke Li have demonstrated that Sweden’s pop domination is by no means over. We scoured the Swedish underground for the next crop of artists who might become pop stars, and present our findings today. But we have to ask: how come they all sing in English?!
The indie pop act Lemonade got their start in San Francisco and then moved to -- where else? -- Brooklyn. They returned with a new album last week and a new video today, and they picked an assortment of pleasingly frothy videos to get us in the mood for warm summer nights.
The Norwegian knob-twiddler Todd Terje has been quietly building a following for his neo-disco for the past few years. “Inspector Norse” is a great example of his refreshingly straightforward dance music, but it’s the video that really captivates here. Pulled from a short documentary entitled Whateverest, it follows a stymied, strange wannabe musician in rural Sweden who calls himself Inspector Norse. We can’t really do justice to the good Inspector -- you’ve got to see it for yourself.