Good evening my lovely people! I hope everyone’s having a ravishing Super Tuesday! This is no political blog, but I hope everyone is taking the opportunity to watch the process unfold live on the television tonight. So while the delegates are counted and the winners are projected, I’m going to make my own projection: A “one to watch” for 2008, if you will.
If you close your eyes, you’ll know the voice. Or at least, you may think so. But it’s not Robyn. It’s Lykke Li, an emerging indie-pop artist from my favorite land of music, Sweden. Add a dash of Margaret Berger’s eclectic nature and subtract Robyn’s hip-hop swagger, and you’ve gotten something like Lykke Li plus a handful of quirk. Her voice is something straight from the 1960’s, as well as her swinging style, which already earns a special place in my heart. I’m quite digging her sound…simple and understated, yet richly textured.
She came onto the scene rather recently, due mainly to word-of-mouth via Myspace and blogs. Therefore, I a
m contributing to history. Her debut album Youth Novels was released on January 30th and produced by Peter Björn (creator of that whistle-y song that everyone knew over the summer, and you grew quite tired of but not quite because you still whistle it from time to time). I expect to listen to the entire album later tonight. Here’s a little tidbit to keep you intrigued…like a bare leg on the side of the highway. Well, a leg attached to an attractive woman. Otherwise that would be fairly horrifying to see just a bare leg sitting out alone on the side of the road. Here it is!
DL: Lykke Li – Little Bit
Additionally, I’m putting up one of the very first finished songs Lykke ever posted onto the web. She says it’s quite dear to her, and rightly so, as it’s just plain pretty.
DL: Lykke Li – Tonight
In the meantime, check out her live acoustic version of her song “I’m Good, I’m Gone,” featuring Robyn! There’s some strange bits at the beginning, but it builds perfectly. You can tell she doesn’t care for the megaphone’s feedback during the introduction. There are also moments in which I was positive that Robyn was secretly Amy Sedaris in disguise as a Swedish pop star. They look alike, I swear it!