Loney, Dear - 'Dear John' (Parlophone) Releasedate 02/03/09

Scandinavia is clearly a neck of the woods in need of a good PR exercise after the collateral damage of 80's/90's pop acts who shall, nevertheless, remain nameless. Leftfield artists have faired a whole lot better in pushing sonic boundaries. Help is at hand! Like a Swedish cousin to Belle & Sebastian, the studio set-up of Loney, Dear is the falsetto vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanangen, a classically trained musician with a sensitive soul who stacks bitter leaf songs about regret, loss and suicide in a club sandwich of otherwise vibrant and affirmative pop. It's a contrast as pertinent as the shortfall of winter sun-hours in such Northern European climes, and on 'Dear John' there's a palpable sense of sadness to be found as if dear ones have fallen by the wayside, yet a yea!! of wide-armed embrace of life as on the gleeful track 'Summers'.

Looping mantra-like "na na na's" intonations as on the jubilant 'Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl' of the 2005 album 'Citadel Band' is a trick that Emil works wonders, again here on 'Airport Surroundings' and 'Violent' the spooks of an 80's Scandinavian band hover but nevertheless the tracks find a dizzying and exhilarating cadence as Emil zips with a "na na na na na" mantra and a groovy-ass lilt, the former with Emil singing "...you were all I want...I bought a ticket to hell when I met up with you..." with open-eyed determination.

Leaves turn from green to mulch, and contrasts abound from 'Everything Turns To You' with its' tightrope tensions of dramatic string samples and broody, noirish declarations of love like the hero is about to make a suicide leap, while 'Under A Silent Sea' shows a clubby side as a Euro-house undertow builds with keys and beats. 'Summers', however, forms the chipper standout as pumping brass samples and a strong pulse, harmonica wheeze and Emil's falsetto conspire to deliver a joy of life pop song like Belle & Sebastian on light therapy and a Mediterranean diet, Emil radiant and defiant, singing -  "...why am I always 'fraid of losing it...". On 'I Was Only Going Out' there's a lightness coupled with a touch of pathos, like Kermit the Frog doing LCD Soundsystems's 'New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down', but the coup de grace being a joyous harmonic whistling à la Andrew Bird doing a milk-round in the rain.