12/12/07

And Forget About My Tainted Heart

I wrote that I was going to put interviews here, and I will. I haven't forgotten. I remain devotedly behind the times, never knowing about what cool music people are listening to and generally not paying attention to culture. Especially "alternative" culture and hipster culture and youth culture. So i'm always behind the times and don't listen to new records, really. So maybe everyone is already into this and I'm still super lame.


But oh my god, Lykke Li.



I rarely agree with or even pay attention to music blogs (unless they mention me, obvi). But Lykke Li is so right on. Her songs are fucking amazing. The big favorite, "Little Bit" is of course gorgeous. I understand the comparisons to Karen Dreijer of the Knife, I guess. Maybe it's the way that English sung with a Swedish accent sounds? Like the weird Scandinavian cadence. Also, the staccato string and steel drum bits do sort of remind one of the first Knife records, but "Little Bit" is so much better. Lykke Li isn't going for the same opaque doom that the Knife has. I mean, yes, she's from Stockholm and that must be depressing as hell, but it sounds like she's listened to a lot of American pop music records, and this is serving her well.

The video, of course, is the most wonderful thing in the fucking universe as well.



Full Disclosure: I only heard about Lykke Li and "Little Bit" because of a cover version done by my new friend LEIF. His version captures the same soft-footed sadness as the original, but capitalizes on the inherent freakiness of the bass line. My experience of Leif's version and the original and the video are sort of intertwined. His version is in most ways more interesting and I think everyone should go listen to it now.

This is the song that I am going to remember as the song from the winter of 2007.




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