Swedish~ Stereo~

I bet when debut Mohombi's album "Movemeant" was released you thought that all those new leaks and demos will stop rushing all over Internet and we'll get a small Mohombi break. Don't even dream about it!
I can't find at least any drop of official information regarding it but we've got completely stunning Mohombi's leaked cover for The Cranberries "Zombie" - "In Your Head" - from the typical Mohombi-verse you will never guess you're gonna get such a huge sounding chorus "in your head...Mohombi" that sure makes you smile and wondering why wasn't it included into album. What a great single choise could it be?
From another news of Mohombi - his new single with Nicole Scherzinger "Coconut Tree" soon will get a video and we wait so much from it as we use to love Mohombi's videos a lot.
Thanx for the tip to one of our new beloved pop-blogs ILIKEMYMUSIC with really great taste.

Hooray!!! One of this year multiple injustices of Melodifestivalen was (almost) fixed. Anders Fernette's album "Run" has finally debuted in Swedish chart last week - right on #11 that is exactly fantastic news. After it couldn't get there almost 2 months we expected complete flop but Anders has done it!
And it's pretty rightfully as "Run" is compilation of 11 amazing tracks (+ 2 old Anders' hits when people called him Johansson) - such a polished poptastic stuff with quite different sound from RedOne hit-area to Backstreet Boys breathing boysband pop-rock - modern, updated, qualitative and melodic. I'm gonna tell you later about something else from this album that's gonna convince you to give it a listen if you didn't.
Yesterday Anders presented title-track of the album - "Run" in ballad version - epic emotional and opening beauty of tune much more, also don't forget to check ballad version in live acoustic version.

Our sweetheart Sibel presents new video for her latest single "Wake Up". Actually the first video since her first album when she was singing melodic acoustic schlager-pop and videos were also romantic and warm.
Now it's new Sibel with modern music and fresh image. In new video Sibel is trying to wake her guy up to show some interest for her being in front of cartoon backgrounds, what we love the most is undoubtfully Sibel's glamourous pink saw. We need to know where to get one right now!
The song is still fantastic in our opinion, it's like older sister of "Stop" and if you loved "Stop" you're gonna absolutely love "Wake Up" as well.

Lykke Li is just synonym to awesome in this season. Awesome music, awesome videos, awesome stories, awesome everything.
Today Lykke presents new video for another track "Sadness is a Blessing" from her latest album "Wounded Rhymes" - another one directed by Tarik Saleh and featuring famous actor Stellan Skarsgård (yes, father of Alexander and Gustaf).
It's one of the lightest tracks on the album and the video is not as depressive as previous one, though it gives whole range of feelings that drunk and dancing Lykke can give and she can give a lot, watch yourself!

Do you know what we celebrate today? One year since debut single of Gravitonas "Kites" has seen the light!
Gravitonas has become essential part of life and music interests for many Swedish pop-fans during last year. 10 amazing songs, 2 singles+upcoming "Everybody Dance" and 2 EPs, how much more can Gravitonas give us? I'm sure a lot and everything's just starting.
Let's celebrate this day with Gravitonas' performance of "You Break Me Up" at Bingolotto that they've done earlier this year but it has leaked on youtube only now.
By the way guys have just shot million dollar video for "Everybody Dance" in Moscow and due to Alexander it's gonna be really scandalous work that we'll be able to watch this June. You can check some photos from shooting video here.

Isn't it weird that after Mikrofonkåt-explosion we were waiting for some new worthy attempt to make pop-sensation with mix of heavy electronic dance-pop and little catchy melody performed on Swedish almost half a year? However finally we've got one right before Summer season so will "Den Bästa Dagen" be the biggest Summer hit in Sweden?
Project In Styles and Kerima Holm - who are they actually?
In Styles is club project of Mike Perry - Swedish producer that we've noticed thanx to his lovely mix of Linda Pritchard's "Fast Car" but due to information on his page his credits are much larger. Kerima Holm was participant of the very first season of Swedish Idol with Darin and Loreen. Afterwards she provided backing vocal for different artists, was singing on Bratz' "Rock Angelz" soundtrack with Janet Leon and Anorah and was recording with the winner of the next Idol's season - Agnes and I think that actually girls have really similar manners of singing that makes new Kerima's collaboration with In Styles even more intriguing.
As I already said "Den Bästa Dagen" is dance-pop track with heavy electronic bass and at the same time very summerish bubblegum tune infectious as five "Mikrofonkåt"s and guess label that the song will be released on? Right, label releasing the catchiest tunes in the world (and Mikrofonkåt is not exception) - Catchy Tunes.

These days I'm starting missing Pauline like I couldn't suppose I would before I've re-discovered her before Melodifestivalen-2010. What an amazing and unique artist she is. After last year's contest she has re-released her latest album, has taken part in Bydgoszcz Hit Festiwal in August and has appeared this year on records of two rap-artists - Swingfly's album "Awesomeness - An Introduction" on the track "Little Did I Know" and Petter's "En Räddare I Nöden 2.0" on the track "De Där".
Talking about "Awesomeness" it's re-release of the last Swingfly's album "God Bless The IRS" with new songs "Me And My Drum", "Rags To Riches" and "Little Did I Know" that turned to be little light tune with fantastic energy and feel-good sparkle of Jason Mraz' music. Totally enjoyable!

Seems like the last time I mentioned sweet Tove Styrke here was ages ago.
Quite unfairly from my side but I'll fix it in the article with all the latest Tove's news and my thoughts about them this week.
Right now it's just spontaneous post about Tove taking part in Ikea beds advertising company where also artists Albin Gromer, Siw Malmkvist, Magnus Tingsek, Maia Hirasawa and Musette should appear soon. Tove has recorded popular old folk lullaby "Byssan Lull" made popular by Evert Taube in the beginning of 20th century and covered by many artists afterwards. Tove has filled it with strong Björk-feeling, like nothing else you've heard from her before but really dark, magic and beautiful electronic track based on folk-tune. Is there any chance we'll get it in full studio version, please?

Yesterday I've presented new Bingolotto performance of Ace of Base for your attention but AOB weren't the only interesting guests of the show.
Svante Thuresson who has just released new album "Regionala Nyheter: Stockholmsdelen" presented new Mauro Scocco written song "Sommar I Stockholm" and "Ta Det Kallt, Det Är Allt" with Lotta Engberg and another schlager-veteran Kikki Danielsson who also ready for her new album "Första Dagen På Resten Av Mitt Liv" has presented song "Wagon Wheels" from it. But our most expected guest was Linda Pritchard who performed best ballad of Melodifestivalen-2011 in our opinion, it's "Alive", it's here and it's fantastic Linda Pritchard (video is a bit defective in the first verse but fine after that).
UPD: Full video of concert was removed so links to Kikki and Svante don't work but thanks for the tip to our dear reader Peter we have separate Linda's performance here.

One of our biggest discoveries of 2010 in Swedish music Broken Door are back with brand new single "Hey You" already struggling for its future on Swedish radio
Like previous singles "Hey You" is powerful and melodic pop-rock track with beautiful pop-tune and specific thoughtful atmosphere of Broken Door music lifted up with juicy guitar part and emotional Tobias' vocal, like we love!
Here you can check the song presented with slide-show made of band's tour photos on official youtube channel.

Since massive Charlotte Perrelli's promo-tour in 2008 Sweden doesn't seem to put loads of efforts in flying across Europe to promote its song for Eurovision to other countries before the contest.
This year wasn't exception but however Eric Saade couldn't refuse to visit Russia having quite active programme of interviews and visits to a few tv-shows. Though Eric hasn't managed to get to popular Stars Factory show (that would be amazing possibility being shown on main country's channel) he has performed "Popular" at Armenian Music Awards and at Sunday show "Central TV".
Both performances were done with playback but looked quite well with Melodifestivalen choreography, here you can check both.

I honestly didn't intend making this day on blog day of Ace of Base but new Ace of Base have made performance on Bingolotto with one of their album tracks "Southern California" and I need to let you know about it as it's quite rare case.
Debut for new formed band hasn't become as successful as it was planned, album was very welcome in Germany but Sweden has turned more sceptic to guys so here is another attempt attracting attention to the album with another song that is actually best fitting Clara's vocal and personality on the album in my opinion. Will it become new single? Hope so!

Peter Jöback is releasing brand new single "Räddaren i nöden" - very pleasant spring track written by Ludwig Bell (Swedish singer who previously was noticed working with Hello Saferide and Dreamboy).
After "Inte redo än" new song continues the line of Peter's Swedish singles. It's all about live instruments arrangement with mostly acoustic sound and uplifting fresh mood that after quite melancholic "Inte redo än" is going to fit this season's atmosphere very well. You can listen to it below.
By the way good news for all Peter's fans, according to his unofficial blog singer has revealed that tour-programme "En kväll med Peter Jöback" was recently filmed and is planned to be released on DVD or to be shown on TV depending on if interest among audience will be properly big.

Title of the best song of this year's national ESC-selections (outside of MF-bubble) due to Swedish Stereo opinion goes toooooo... Jenny Berggren's "Let Your Heart Be Mine"!
I still consider this song is all sorts of incredible, touching, powerful, it's everything we adore in 3 minutes of dramatic Eurovision dance-pop!
Everyone who prefer to keep a bit more dancey have got opportunity to enjoy the song in lovely mix from DJ Calboy - right that sort of mix you need for Eurovision song with huge anthemic dance-beat not changing basic tune and stunning key-change. You can also check it in video-mix with extended version right below and download pack of Calboy mixes on Ultimate Ace Of Base site.

We need to confess that we've fallen in lala love with the artist - from the first sight and from the first listen. I'd like to introduce you to Dajana Lööf and her new single "Lala Love".
Dajana is not the new public face in Sweden. She has started her career back in 2003 when she has taken participance in talents show Fame Factory with Simon Forsberg and Anders Fernette. Later she tried to find herself in music, it wasn't easy after Fame Factory with its schlager-obsessed producer Bert Karlsson who wanted Dajana to be a part of pop-project that had to become new Friends. Another producer wanted Dajana to look like Betty Davies, she was enthusiastic about any direction her destiny offered but that wasn't what she really wanted to be. So finally Dajana has turned her public activity to hosting tv-show and then has disappeared for a while.
Now Dajana's making comeback with new single "Lala Love" written with producing team KILLRON and the song feels like an amazing spring pop-soundtrack combining electro-flavoured arrangement with acoustic-based song into lovely sunny combination winning you by its warmth and careless sweet Dajana's vocal.
Brilliant debut and one of our biggest hopes of this year, you can check Dajana's performance at Bingolotto and studio-vesion of "Lala Love" below.

God bless Swedish House Mafia for not leaving Summer season without new club-anthem "Save The World".
Long time rumours were flowing about Miike Snow involved in creating this hit but seems like it's just a rumour as only name of singer John Martin is mentioned in vocal contribution and no word about Miike Snow in official info.
Back to the song. "Save The World" gets milder and calmer sound than previous Swedish House Mafia though it's still dancefloor-killer of the highest standard with melodics in combination with John Martin's vocal reminding Viktorious' "When We Were 10". Pretty trendy for this season, so give it some brilliant video and let the world's dancefloors be saved by this track this Summer.
For now it's just a radio-rip premiered yesterday on BBC radio but in quite high quality to enjoy it in full mode!

Schlager-explosion Linda Bengtzing is back this year with her Melodifestivalen single "E det fel på mej" and compilation of some old best and unreleased fresh stuff "Min Karusell - En samling" - both have entered Top-20 making this year pretty successful for Linda. Three of tracks that you've probably missed are duet with Brolle "Varför gör du som du gör?" from previous Linda's album "Vild & Galen", recently released track "Kärlekens barn" and brand new schlager "Män i uniform". You can listen to all of them below.

And sure don't forget to get charged with Linda's performance at Nyhetsmorgon - something that always delivers tons of fun and it even doesn't matter what, where and how is performed, there's only Linda and schlager-hurricane she takes with her on the stage.

I keep telling you about some exciting Melodifestivalen demos (though Melodifastivalen demo is always exciting thing, no matter if it sounds better or worse than final version) and this time I guess about one I couldn't even imagine we will ever hear because this song is due to my own opinion best Melodifestivalen song ever!
I'm talking about Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" - winning song of Melodifestivalen-2008 written by Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren. If you remember studio-version had 2 backing vocalists - Anna Nordell (who was left behind stage on Melodifestivalen) and Agnetha Kjörsvik (who was sent to Belgrade with Charlotte to sing behind the stage as well).
But probably you didn't know that it was Agnetha Kjörsvik (ex-vocalist of Freebee) who was singing on demo of "Hero" before Charlotte started working with it and the song has got Bassflow production, now you can listen to it yourself!
My opinion about this version - I love it!!! Sure, song wouldn't pretend to win without Petter Boström arrangement that turned it to schlager-heaven and Charlotte with all her attitude, story and personality in common, but when you heard track like thousand times it's definitely cool to look at this from completely different side with rockier sound and Agnetha's emotional, powerful and really beautiful vocal.

Today I'd like to present you brand new name that I never mentioned before - Little Majorette. Zoe Durrant, Petter Winnberg and Nils Tornqist - it's quite possible that you didn't hear about these guys before but sure you could hear about international producing team Bloodshy & Avant (Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg), Petter is brother of Pontus and together with Nils they are touring with Bloodshy & Avant's project Miike Snow.
Right now band is releasing album "Rifle Heart" and supports it with the single "Never Be The Same" produced by Pontus Winnberg and the result of colaboration is pretty amazing. Dark electronic track that starts in minimalistic indie-manner growing to massive throbbing chorus creating charming, melancholic and incredibly sweet combination. You can also check previous Little Majorette's single "Overflow" below, it's a bit more classic mix of indie and jazzy vibes, still very pleasant.

Hope you haven't missed first episode of "Inför Eurovision Song Contest 2011" - preview-show where Swedish music experts discuss songs of upcoming Eurovision - probably you have analogues in your countries if you live in Europe but however the show is really worth watching because of quite interesting participants - Lotta Engberg, Andreas Johnson, Sarah Dawn Finer, Christine Meltzer, Thomas Lundin, Christer Björkman.
It's hard to follow if you don't know Swedish but you have ability to switch subtitles, maybe it'll help you!
So if you want to know which entry sounds like Magnus Carlsson with "Dansar I Månens Sken", who reminds mix of Anastacia, Pink and bat, what common "One More Day" and One More Time have, if it's good to send Le Kid from Serbia and who tried to steal Gaga's "Born This Way", come here and watch.
Switzerland, Norway, Serbia and Finland have got highest marks, watch full table here.

Though the third part of Robyn's trilogy "Body Talk" was already released last year along with final compilation that currently makes its road to the heart of listeners from the most different continents era of "Body Talk" is not over and this May another single "Call Your Girfriend" will see the light.
As you could expect bunch of mixes from different DJs will support this release but as you probably didn't expect every of them is better than other, every is pretty stunning club banger but if we had to choose best one we would choose... Kaskade remix - that loud modern sort of disco chorus is just too dance-ecstatic so we give highest marks to whole pack at least for this track. And for the rest too. And almost forgive girl for not releasing "Time Machine" as next single. Though...

I guess rainy lazy day like this is the most right to talk about new Lykke Li's album "Wounded Rhymes". I've already told you about this long-awaited work and not only by us as it has made its respectable debut at #2 of Swedish chart and still is in Top-10.
It's hard to call "Wounded Rhymes" just album, compilation of music tracks, it's definitely something much bigger, it feels like a whole world, world created by Lykke, world where the sun never rises and seems like there's no place for hope. Or actually there is? In this ghost world where Lykke sounds like another lost soul wandering around scorched wastelands and abandoned bars her voice feels like the only real hope if she realizes it or not.
"Wounded Rhymes" is probably the most original and inspiring work I heard this year. Mix of dark Tarantino-vibes and melancholic retro-jazz atmosphere lit by gentle pop-tunes sung by soft and relaxed Lykke's vocal feels like something completely unique and really precious these days when commercial pop-music desperately looks for new niches and ways to grow. Lykke doesn't seem to care about it, she just closes herself in her own world but leaves doors open for everyone who will want to come and get lost with her.

Excuse me Lena but THIS is how your comeback single had to sound like to become bomb of the season. I don't say that I didn't like "Idiot", it's pretty lovely disco-song but was I the only who was missing some...toughness, heaviness? I think this brilliant mashup from DJ Gauffie shows really well where Lena should move further to bring her title of Swedish disco-queen back. As she really can!

You can also listen and download mashup here.

Already next month new sensation The Moniker who has conquered Sweden with pure joy of his single "Oh My God!" on Melodifestivalen will release his debut album "Maktub".
Cover of the album is already delivered by Rikard Engfors who was responsible for LED-video for The Moniker's performance and presented to audience. And though there's no sign of tracklist yet (and hope we shouldn't wait till May 15th when album will get released) The Moniker already visits different TV-shows to present tracks which are planned to be included into new album. Here is example of such acoustic performance in Efter Tio with "Oh My God!" and "Time of your life".

TV4 definitely loves and supports its successfull ex-Idols and in one of the latest Körslaget episodes "Oh My God!" was sung by choir of Casper Janebrink.

Last winter one of our most inspiring and beloved Swedish artists - Vincent Pontare has announced his comeback with brand new single "Baby Hurricane" marking new direction of Vincent's style. A bit unexpected turn from expressive direct reggae-pop sound to more special and magic maybe not to get open from the first listen but still obviously quite beautiful. Now we can listen to the second single "The Moment I Met You" and it's another proof of global Vincent's sound renovation.
"The Moment I Met You" continues direction of that happy but misterious melodic half-guitar half-electronic pop armed with skillful tune and really special atmosphere - probably the most valuable thing when we talk about Vincent's music.

After "Popular" getting platinum status and "Spring För Livet" becoming golden another Melodifestivalen single's getting gold and it's Swingfly's "Me And My Drum" - after surprising beating semifinal faves and qualifying to Melodifestivalen final reaching Top-5 there it's another great success of this song.
Currently it's still in Top-10 of Swedish singles-chart with "Popular" and as support of the single we get pack of mixes - from Adam Rickfors (who deliver amazing, only amazing and nothing but amazing mixes these days) and Stereotypic mixes which I also like a lot. Hope you will too!

This year Sweden gets new really exciting project Dream Beats. And can it be anything less than exciting when it's built by people like Anders Hansson (it's sort of impossible to make a list of all his hits but BWO, Alcazar and Agnes are the most recent artists he worked really successfully with) and Felix Persson with Märta Grauers from Le Kid (guys worked with Anders a lot on productions for different Swedish and foreign artists, for example new Kate Ryan's single "LoveLife" was delivered by this great team).
Now guys start their own project and they plan to invite different vocalists for their tracks. First vocal contribution for the first Dream Beats' single "Feel 4U" was provided not less than Alcazar and it's almost classic 80s disco-track with vocal line taking us somewhere to 90s pop-tradition. We don't take responsibility to judge by remix that was presented on band's site (and that you can check below) but you can read very interesting review on amazing Oswalds Popcorn blog.
Our opinion is that Alcazar never sounded so "alcazarized" like this for at least five years and it's definitely fantastic but not surprising thing - Anders wrote songs for every Alcazar album and sure he knows how to explode with that pure Alcazar disco-pop-fun. There is a looooong intro around 2 minutes, right after you'll become alcazarized (and we still wait for radio-edit to make final decision if it's a great track or if it's a great track).

How come The Attic guys present so much brilliant new stuff all the time but songs become hits so rarely? But maybe it's better to make some solo-attempts to break through again? At least there's a big chance it'll happen this Summer with new single from Eric Amarillo "Om Sanningen Ska Fram" that already makes success on the radio.
From the first listen "Om Sanningen Ska Fram" has classic The Attic electronic sound with vocal line reminding Patrik Isaksson melodics (tell me if you find this association weird), it's not as soft and poppy as "In Your Eyes" or "The Arrival" but it's incredibly catchy so it can easily become big Summer hit.
Michael Feiner makes two shots with his own track "Vocalise" that he recently has presented on his youtube channel - pretty epic club-track that we're really looking forward and has taken part in recording new dance-track "The Days To Come" with Arno Cost & Arias - and it's probably something closer to The Attic music maybe because of Michael's vocal that you can't mix with someone else.

Blog is coming back after weekend pause when I had no Internet thanx to my lovely provider who gave me opportunity to spend time cleaning my hard drive turning pretty chaotic in the last few years and ocassionaly falling in love once again with Basshunter's "Saturday" that surprisingly hasn't become proper huge international hit but still was pretty big locally for example in Russia.
So definitely I was excited to see news from Basshunter right when I've come back.
Spending crazy scandalous time on UK Big Brother Jonas turns his head to homeland version but not as participant. Basshunter has produced official single for Big Brother in Sweden, it's called "Fest i Hela Huset", it's a classic Basshunter and it sounds like amazing ring to wake you up in the beginning of new working week so come one sleeping beauties, here we go!

Can you remember the latest time when any Swedish artist was taking American TV with a storm visiting such a huge TV-shows like The Ellen Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live? At least I can't but who else can represent Sweden on international pop-stage better than this amazing lady can do these days?
Robyn has appeared recently on these two big shows with both her comeback single of 2010 "Dancing On My Own" and her brand new "Call Your Girlfriend" giving it all like she usually does and getting positive response from the audience, you can enjoy performances right now.
Thanx to Pop In Stereo blog for tips.

Eric Saade's video for his Melodifestivalen winning song "Popular" is unleashed!
Video was directed by Mikeadelica and as there's no Eric without dances you can expect a lot of dances - bloody dance fights, dance dramas and happy dancing end (sorry for a little spoiler but there's no place for a bad signs when you're going to Eurovision in a few weeks).
Two words about Eurovision. Eric was allowed to blast his glass cube on the stage of Eurovision, actually two cubes will be used for it, we're not sure about details of implementation but very soon as rehearsals will start we'll know from reports more how it will look like and will let you know.

Latest Veronica Maggio's single "Jag Kommer" can already be called success becoming highest charted one (#4) so far.
Two weeks before Veronica's new album will be released she also presents video for the single, a bit weird, artistic a lot and incredibly sweet, like the song and like Veronica actually is.
Due to words of the artist she's writen so many songs about love coming to an end that she'd like to write something about everything in the very beginning. So here it is, fresh video for "Jag Kommer".

Darin is one of those artists we can never get enough in any sort of appearance - on TV, in songwriting credits to songs of other artists and sure in his own new stuff. Thanx God he never makes us waiting too long and after "Lovekiller" album that due to our opinion was one of the most incredible pop-albums of 2010 Darin is already recording new songs with Anders Bagge, Niklas Bergwall and some other songwriters (check more on Poster Girl's blog). One thing looks clear - ballad period is over and Darin turns his face to something completely new, actually Niklas Bergwall? Will ballad-Darin turn to dance-Darin? Ah, who cares - we take it all!
Few days ago Darin has appeared on Channel 5 to perform cover of Lisa Nilsson's "Himlen Runt Hörnet" and trust us it just can't go wrong when Darin makes this sort of intimate piano performance, it's beautiful!

Carola releasing proper dance-remix for her new single - is it something happening like ages ago last time?
Though new Carola's album is just a tribute to retro-hits of Elvis and Barbra Streisand fresh single "Enough Is Enough (No More Tears)" was obviously chosen to please Carola's schlager-fans sector as first of all this cover has turned to be stunning disco-track in pretty classic manner. However for all those who is not that keen on good old disco have got fresh dance-treatment from Adam Rickfors and it really feels like Adam never disappoints these days.
Amazing club-track and soon it'll be released on iTunes.

This Summer Depeche Mode will release compilation of mixes "Remixes 2: 81–11" made of tracks from the most different periods of their career and as you could expect forces behind this compilation get really international collecting some best DJs around the world to make proper legendary release for legendary band.
Sure you can find some recognizable Swedish names in tracklist - Miike Snow have done mixes for "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "When The Body Speaks", Peter Bjorn and John worked on "Fragile Tension" and Eric Prydz has become responsible for mix of "Never Let Me Down Again". Results of the latest two works are already online and feel pretty tasty with Prydz' version sounding like qualitative radio-track with minimum of left vocals and Peter Bjorn and John's version leaving vocal line close to original but making it sound like song from their own album.

One of our latest discoveries Beldina who has presented her stunning fresh single "Here We Go" from Ali Payami earlier this Winter makes new step in her music career releasing EP "Best Kept Secret" and unleashing new music video for "Here We Go" - minimalistic but charming with nothing but 3 minutes of Beldina's charisma on dark background not distracting from lovely track.
You can already check all songs of "Best Kept Secret" online, they're less dancey than "Here We Go", it's more chillout air-light and partly urban stuff but not that sort of music you can listen in bar and forget right in that moment you're leaving as Beldina's unique soft and flexible voice makes it pretty personal. Our favorite is Rasmus Faber-produced "Hunt You Down" - magic tune woven from Beldina's hypnotizing vocal, almost weightless keys and beautiful strings part.

Firstly I told you about snippet of new Brandur's single "The Illusion Of" coming back as electropop-hero having actually nothing with that good guy singing blues we heard on his latest works, then we've finally got full single that completely hasn't disappointed us (how could fresh A-Ha inspired pop-stuff disappoint when high quality professionals like Maria Marcus are involved?), now video for new single is out and we're back with news about it again!
Well, I really like idea of words running over Brandur's face, old book effect and black and white swans (though black one looks like raven? I'm really bad in ornithology, sorry!) fighting for a piece of topless Brandur, there's too much of symbolism to understand it from the first sight so I'll check it one more time and you can also right below.

Three months after release of the first Roxette's comeback single "She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)" band is ready for a new one and we happily announce that it's one of our most beloved tracks from the album "Charm School" - "Speak To Me".
Beautiful dreamy ballad with old-school rock-chorus softened with Marie's vocal and becoming very female and touching in a vein of "Wish I Could Fly" - that's what we thought had to be the best choice for the second single.
But then we've got some incredible news - Peter Boström (Bassflow) was intended to make new version of the song and what has come out of it has become something you completely don't expect when you hear about remake/remix from Peter. As you probably know Peter worked with Tony Nilsson and new version of the song was left in original tempo with verses getting more electronic and meditative and chorus getting more massive in a way of Tony's ballads for Darin and Elin Lanto and sure we love it like we use to!
Credits for upload of the track go to awesome Poster Girl.

Today I'd like to introduce you to relatively new artist but with pretty strong debut pretending to become really qualitative bid for international breakthrough with the help of another artist you should know well if you read this blog constantly.
Sabrina Petrini known under artistic name KingQueen presents release of her new single "La La Land" featuring Lazee and video for it is already out, at the same time album "La La Land" is coming out as well.
KingQueen was born in Helsingborg and lived there until 20 when she has decided to move to UK and later to US to improve her professional skills and find sources of inspiration for her further music career and in 2009 she has made debut with singles "Luv Drug" and "U Make Me (LOL)". It has taken less than 2 years before her album was ready to see the light and it has turned to be inflammable mixture of electro, rock and urban vibes on heavy aggressive pop-steroids. Is it too much? At least not every pop-star is brave enough to get so uncomprising but that's why KingQueen is here.
Below you can check current KingQueen's single and even to get a sneak peek of what her album "La La Land" is about, check it, it's really promising discovery of the season.

One of the most respectable Melodifestivalen DJs SoundFactory delivers mix-treatment for the latest Sanna Nielsen's hit "I'm In Love".
Previously SoundFactory has already made mixes for Sanna's "Empty Room" and "Vågar Du, Vågar Jag" and now when Sanna's back SoundFactory equips her with fresh bunch of mixes that you can listen here.
Comparing to other previous SoundFactory mixes this one gets more electronic but still pretty recognizable for him with all the right accents and schlager-culmination on the place that is a good thing as his works have become some sort of Christmas schlager-tree - they just had to appear for one or two melosingles otherwise this MF season won't be complete.

Six years have passed since eurodance-queen of 90s Pandora has released her latest album "9 Lives", fans should've waited really long though Pandora generously was saving them from this completely hungry diet with 1-2 or even 3 singles in year.
Now the wait is over and the album "Head Up High" is ready to see the light. You can already stream whole album below (or check it on Pandora's site).
What does actually Pandora-2011 sound like? I should say that "Head Up High" is pretty amazing collection of all shades of europop Anneli explored last years. Almost classic sounding disco ("Head Up High", "Turn It Over"), some sort of schlagerized electropop ("You Woke My Heart"), Summerish latino-pop ("I Found Love"), modern europop ("Wild Boys", "Off The Hook"), few ballads ("Why", "Until The Hurt Is Gone") and sure old good eurodance ("Ice Cream", "You Believed") covered in modern arrangement but still with screaming choruses, rap and eveything that should cause your nostalgic feelings if you remember and love that era of pop-music.
If you're into Swedish dance-pop you should find at least few tracks you'll fall in love with and if you don't believe don't hesitate to check yourself right now.

Erik Hassle's new Kent-produced mini-album "Mariefred Sessions" makes debut at #11 of Swedish chart - not bad result for young talent but hopefully it's just a beginning.
Erik has already presented few of his new tracks earlier this year and taking into consideration that album contains 6 tracks we've already heard half of them. After listening to whole album I'm not gonna say there's as much of Erik as Kent. Yes, electonic sound of "Sometimes When It Rains" with dark keys and filtered Eric's voice feels like something we heard on the latest Kent's albums. Yes, acoustic guitar-driven radio-friendly chorus of "Stay Away" feels like something from previous pop-rock Kent's era. Yes, Joakim Berg's vocal could easily be layed behind heavy synths of "Stains". But however in common it's Erik's personality prevailing in every key and every sound of this album and passion he has put into this album becomes strong link between two music worlds never crossed before. "Stay Away" will be released as the second single and Erik plans to make video for it, good choice for the single but I hope we'll get some more this Summer.
You can check both "Stay Away" and "Sometimes When It Rains" below though there's huge possibility some other album track will inspire for new article. Or two.