Maybe it's the youth gardens of Sweden or the Scandinavian stereotype of being quiet and shy so the music comes from that one special place where they can truly be themselves - well - either way, Scandinavians are amazing at their musical craft, probably even better than Americans. I swear by a good handful of Scandinavian songstresses, be it Swedish, or (where a fourth of my heritage comes from) Norway, or even Denmark.
ANNIE
What can I possibly say about Ms. Strand? Six words: I love her! I love her! Going by her first name, Annie has rocked music blogs since 2005 with her debut "Anniemal" hooking together indie and intellectual lyrics with candified electronic hooks. Five years later, she still does not disappoint after the release of a single, "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" then a much anticipated album just last year that shows off she's more than just another Kylie Minogue of electropop music. Songs such as "Take You Home" and "Marie Cherie" shows off her impeccable ability to create an atmospheric ambiance that lies somewhere between electro and your typical Yanni album. Have I mentioned she's the nicest woman I have ever spoken with? Add her, if you have her on the Little Bluebird named Twitter, you'll fall in love with her as much as I have.
CallMeKat
CallMeKat is something soothing and ethereal, so it seems only proper to call her Goddess or simply Katerine Ottosen. Colliding blues with lo-fi, you're never too sure if Katerine is either depressed or simply one of those happy shades of melancholy (it exists!) in her lyrics but one of my favorites, "Bug in a Web" shows off a sort of sadness and yearning. "Don't go, just stay, I put my rusty mind away..." it gets stuck in my head so often. Anyone who can make a perfect interpretation out of Britney Spears's "Toxic" immediately touches my v-spot.
The Raveonettes
There really is no introduction I can give for Sune Rose Wagner and fashion goddess Sharin Foo. Intelligent and catchy lyrics somewhere underneath one part electronic music of a layer underneath five layers of pure synth noise under another layer of rock music. It is pure perfection and yet, not for everyone, at least their noisy masterpieces such as "Aly Walk With Me," "Noisy Summer," and from the most recent album "Break Up Girls." Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming album comprised mostly of B sides otherwise classics in the making. Other classics include "Suicide" and "Bang!"
Kate Havnevik
How to describe Kate in a nutshell would be to explain to any Grey's Anatomy fan, "You've heard her in like every episode last season." Which is so true, about eight songs exactly. Soft and dreamy with a few synths intricately injected in between the line, Kate could easily be musically Frou Frou's little sister with a piano singing her diary. Look for Kate's latest, "You" to come out sometime this year.
I could not keep the duchess of S-Pop off of my list, it would be unimaginable to not see Robyn either in her rapping "Konichiwa Bitches" or her latest electronic LP experiments of last year that have accumulated into "Body Talk" shows off the best of her rapping skills ("Fembot" and another collaboration with Snoop Dogg on "You Should Know Better") and lyrics. Number one example? "You know when in Rome I sat down with the Romans said "We need a black pope and she better be a woman" There'll be no more celibacy even the Vatican knows not to fuck with me." But nothing is more majestic from the hit maker than her Grammy-nominated "Dancing on My Own" which has made awkward dancing look cool. But here is her latest single,
"Hang With Me" upon the millions of perfect melodies this Swedish Songstress has to offer.
Katzenjammer
From pure amazing pop candy to something that belongs in an awesome underworld of bluegrassy circus music that would come out of Tim Burton if he was a musician is the crazy imaginative minds of the foursome Katzenjammer (replace the j with a y when you say it out loud). Taking their name unashamedly from a German cartoon these Norwegian ladies, Turid Jørgensen, Solveig Heilo, Marianne Sveen and Anne Marit Bergheim, primarily call themselves a folk band with their bigger hit on the other side of the Atlantic, "A Bar in Amsterdam" but it is songs such as "Demon Kitty Rag," "Le Pop," and "On The Devil's Back (Hey Ho)" they have many influences and like a good German expressionist film, they can be interpreted in a number of ways. Check out the cat guitar.
Those Dancing Days
Getting more and more popular nowadays, coming into their own sound that has become something like the female Artic Monkeys instead of their debut twee-inspired "In Our Space Hero Suits," Lisa Pyk, Rebecka Rolfart, Mimmi Evrell, Cissi Efraimsson
with their lead vocalist (and the woman of my dreams) Linnea Jönsson are taking over and forcing you to like it in a dominatrix kind of way. Ahem. Anyway, their newest album "Daydreams and Nightmares" came out and even in the alternative rock, Linnea's sweet as honey voice still has never sounded better, especially in the current single on rotation, "Fuckarias."
Margaret Berger
Margaret is truly an enigma, not winning Norge Idol coming in second but gaining a whole GLBT following with her empowering songs such as "Samantha" and "Still." It's perfect pop music that America will never hear, it's another S-Pop woman singing about robots in "Robot Song" and perky Abba-hooky "Will You Remember Me Tomorrow?" Her second and most recent album, 2006's"Pretty Scary Fairy" had catapulted her into a new sound from 2004's "Chameleon" with a sharper electronic sound that could almost rival Annie. But let's not get ahead of herself.
Other notables?
Frida Sundemo "Towers"
Maria Mena "You're the Only One"
Marit Bergman "No Party"
Marit Larsen "If A Song Could Get Me You"
Bertine Zetiltz "Girl Like You"
They all are pretty in a hipster-kind of way
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