Love Is All – ‘Nothing To Be Done’/‘Ageing Had Never Been His Friend’ (Parlophone) Released 26/03/07

When you consider what most recent Scandinavian musical exports have produced, it’s always a surprise listening to Swedish five piece Love Is All. No retro garage rock or OTT death metal here, instead a wonky, funky pop racket. The cover of Scottish guitar pop band The Pastels' 'Nothing To Be Done' is inspired, with a raucous spirit throughout, random bursts of saxophone spluttering into life and duelling male/female vocals. It helps that the melody is ludicrously addictive as well.

The original composition fares less well. While there’s clearly some real energy behind it the production features a real jumble of musical parts and vocals, meaning it’s hard to pick anything out and resulting in a bouncy but aimless din. Not horrifically bad and the band’s enthusiasm shines through but it does sound like a bunch of young children sitting in a recording studio randomly hitting things. So not love yet but there’s enough here to suggest this could be more than a passing fling.