Music from Sweden

One of the things that first drew my interest to Sweden was its music. Sweden, like Canada, is a small Northern country that has exported a large amount of excellent music. While Swedish pop music is ABBA and Ace of Base in most people's eyes, it does extend beyond that and does not always achieve that same level of cheese. (Admittedly ABBA has its moments, most notably "Gimme Gimme Gimme,")

Some of my favorite Swedish songs:

Moto Boy - The Heart Is a Rebel
An aching, string-drenched slice of Morrissey-esque longing.




El Perro del Mar - Change of Heart
A Northern soul tune made for midnight listening on an empty dancefloor.



Jonathan Johansson - En hand i himlen
Breezy and bouncy, but entirely in Swedish. The title translates to "A hand in the sky" but the rest of the lyrics are lost on me.



Air France - June Evenings
This is Swedish rather than French, though the song feels distinctly Mediterranean. I doubt they have much in the way of beaches near Gothenberg though.



The Knife - Heartbeats
So close to being the perfect pop song, and one of the first Swedish songs I really loved. This song is a fantastic one-off from the Knife, while I do enjoy their usual warped videogame monster from the 80's take on music, it's fantastic to hear something so joyful and ecstatic.


Royksopp ft. Robyn - The Girl and the Robot
Robyn is a fantastic Swedish pop diva, who was famous when I was eight years old ("Show Me Love" anyone?) and then retired to Sweden. Well nearly a decade later she came back and was properly amazing. Here she collaborates with a pair of Norwegians for a relentless dancefloor track.

Starting from somewhere

In only 12 days, I am moving to Sweden. Because of this, I've decided to create a blog in an effort to compile my experiences. I hope this can serve as a way for people to stay connected to what I'm doing (even if only my parents read it, it will serve some purpose.)

I have thought about beginning a blog at other times, when I moved to New York or Washington, but going to Sweden is much further and deeper than those trips were. I've been heavily inspired by the work of my friend, Amanda, who created an excellent travel blog of her time in India. Because of her work, I've felt it necessary to document my time abroad, and while I may not be able to capture pictures of monkeys or Indian palaces, I hope to capture an experience here through my posts and pictures.

I may write about other things that interest me as well, in order to keep in the practice of writing, so I hope no one minds me wrestling with my own self-indulgence as I write about myself and whatever I find interesting.

Finally, I promise to my blog to be a good blog-parent. I know many blogs are abandoned within their first weeks of life, being orphaned into a digital wasteland. I'll do my best to take care of you, and return to you when I feel blog-guilt over blog-negligence.

Kindly,

Jordan