As some who listens to a LOT of music (even when I’m not “listening” to music, I’ve usually got a song in my head), sometimes I get bored with my entire collection and need something new. I felt that way this morning, and as luck would have it, my eMusic credits had just refreshed. So I browsed, and browsed, and browsed… listened to a ton of stuff but nothing was grabbing me. I didn’t really know what I was looking for. But I knew I’d know once I found it.
A link from a link from a link (I think it was actually from a list of “quirky songwriters”) led me to Hello Saferide. And I instantly knew.
Hello Saferide seem to be doing rather well for themselves, judging by their website, with frequent touring (including a recent visit to the States), a few videos, lots of very pretty t-shirts, and even winning two Swedish “Grammi”s for best lyrics as well as best female pop act. However, I had never heard of the band until this morning. Now, I can’t stop listening to them.
Fellow music fanatics know that feeling, when you listen to an artist and the music resonates so much with something inside you that you feel like you’re suddenly engaged in a very private conversation. That’s exactly the feeling I get when listening to Hello Saferide, and that’s exactly the reason I love their songs so much.
Hello Saferide are a Swedish indiepop band led by singer/journalist Annika Norlin. It’s instantly apparent that Annika’s deeply honest and raw lyricism is Hello Saferide’s strong suit; reminding me a bit of early Ben Folds (the piano tracks in particular), the singer has a very deliberate, unaffected delivery that is highlighted but never overshadowed by the capable, yet sometimes understated, musicianship of her bandmates. It’s hard to pick a fave track off Hello Saferide’s “More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide” (which apparently was only recently made available in the US as an import), but the track that had me searching out the lyrics the quickest was definitely “X Telling Me About the Loss of Something Dear, At Age 16”:
I looked up at the ceiling the entire time
Well it didn’t last for long
Like 15 minutes or so. They had said it would hurt, but it didn’t
His face all grumped up, veins were showing on his forehead
Closed my eyes and thought of dancers,
closed my eyes and thought of dancers
I thought of what my friends would say
I thought of how my life would change
I just laid real still there on the bed.
Afterwards I said, like I hear you’re supposed to:
“Was it good for you as well”
He was proud, said: “Ok we can do it again
But maybe this time, you can do it better than this
You can do it better than this.”
I faked to come, because I hear you’re supposed to
There was obviously something wrong with me and I didn’t want him to know
I was afraid he’d have a heartattack and die
I went to work at the shoestore and waved him goodbye
I felt sad, but I didn’t know why
Do you want those in red, I said
250 with laces, I said
Years later, I can still vision that forehead
Slow (photo from band's website)
Been wanting to blog about Slow for a couple of weeks now, but life kept getting in the way. I was introduced to the band by my friend Giuseppe and his Happy Days Are Here Again blog (actually from one of his tweets). He described them as sounding like Low and Ida. They do, and also remind me of other boy/girl bands such as Versus and Secret Stars.
Slow are from Bristol, UK, and the best way I can describe them is, well, slow. Also simple and deliberate. For the most part, the instrumentation on their songs is very minimalist, which helps the listener stay focused on their introspective lyrics and harmonies. I’m particularly intrigued by “Seeds,” the title track from their debut long player, and find myself attempting to analyze the lyrics each time I hear it. I still can’t really pinpoint exactly what it might be about, but it seems to address the topic of loss, which seems a bit dreary at its core; yet there’s also a hint of changing for the better and finding the light at the end of the tunnel. To me, anyway. Whatever the meaning, it’s my current favorite of the six sounds featured on the band’s Myspace page.
Sure, sometimes Slow sounds a little too close to the aforementioned Low and Ida. Take “Old Crow” for example (which is also the name of Slow’s label); you could have told me that song was either band and I would have believed it. But since those two bands are among my favorites, I let that slide and just enjoy the beautiful melodies.
A visit to Slow’s website had me liking them even more, just based on their intro statement (which could have easily been written by someone outside of the band, but still, it seemed to capture their music and the feelings it evoked in me perfectly):
“The general intention of Slow is to make beautiful and thoughtful music… We think on the whole that the world would benefit from people relaxing a bit more, contemplating their existence and purpose, chipping away all the useless crust we accumulate, and we like to remind ourselves to try do this too, and to share that experience with people when we play live… After all, there are plenty of opportunities in life to be overtaken by noise, stress and chaos, so we like to keep things mellow generally…”
I completely agree. Now doesn’t this make you want to go listen?
Songs From Other Countries 