Loney, Dear - Loney, Noir

Genre rock Publisher Sub Pop External Links Official Loney, Dear Website Official Sub Pop Website "I Am John" MP3

It seems that over the past year or so, that slow and steady trickle of great Swedish pop musicians making an impact here in the States has turned into a full-fledged stream with no sign of letting up. It used to be that we had to wait a couple years for another Cardigans or Concretes to pop up onto the scene, but as of late we've been hit with wonderful music from Love Is All, Jens Lekman, I'm From Barcelona, The Radio Dept., El Perro del Mar, and Peter, Bjorn, & John - just to name a few. And now we have yet another promising young Swede to add to the list, a young man by the name of Emil Svanangen who records under the name Loney, Dear.

Since 2003 Svanangen has recorded and self-released four albums of literally homemade indie pop, capturing his imaginative creations on his home computer and distributing them on CD-R via his website and live performances. It may sound little different from what thousands of other amateur musicians do each and every day, but Svanangen's tunes were good enough to grab the attention of the fine folks at Sub Pop who have just re-released his fourth and most recent album, Loney, Noir, here in the U.S. Consider it another hit for the label that has recently brought attention to such deserving artists as Iron and Wine and Rogue Wave.

While the idea of home-recorded bedroom pop may cause those fearing too confessional whining over lo-fi noodling to cringe, the ten tunes that make up Loney, Noir couldn't be further from that stereotype. Svanangen isn't just another kid with an acoustic, a four-track, and a broken heart; he's an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist with an ear for a great melody and a knack for making the most out of them. Many of these songs may have started out with Svanangen and his guitar, but as each layer of flutes, clarinets, organ drones, drums, and keyboard effects gets added, the songs take on a life of their own. Many of these tunes start out sounding spare and fragile, but as the other instruments join in and ramble towards climax they begin to take on a more epic, anthemic feel. "I Am John" and "Hard Days 1, 2, 3, 4" are perfect examples of the Loney, Dear formula, building slowly and steadily until it becomes nearly impossible to ignore the melody bouncing around your ear.

You can consider Svanangen a less earnest Sufjan Stevens or a less clever Jens Lekman, but it wouldn't be much of a stretch to drop his name in the same breath as those fine purveyors of indie pop. Because when it comes to creating delicious little pop tunes that seem to inhabit their own universe, this kid can whip them out like the best of them and I can't wait to hear what else comes rising out of that basement.