Pitchfork gives high marks to the Wildbirds & Peacedrums album "Heartcore": https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/50336-heartcore

The Ruling Class
Tour de force
Shelflife Records

Like C.S. Nielsen's pitch-perfect recreation of Johnny Cash's style of songwriting, the part-Scandinavian/part-British The Ruling Class similarly adopt a faultless Stone Roses style (with maybe more than a few nods to The Charlatans). The reason artists like this succeed is because they follow in exactly the same footprints as their influences -- not beating around the bush (because the songwriters can't quite find the vein they're attempting to replicate), or providing listeners with a karaoke-esque recreation, but deftly hitting every emotional chord that caused us to fall in the love with legends like Johnny Cash and renowned Manchurians The Stone Roses. Our parents have boundlessly assured us that "there will never be another group like The Beatles," and maybe they're right, but The Ruling Class have stepped into shoes that haven't moved quite like this in a long time. There's an art to what they have done that is beyond imitation; it's more like disproving the idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

NME praises Norwegian act Sigh & Explode: https://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h123/tobbilobbi/SighExplode.jpg

Days
Downhill
Shelflife Records

On their EP and 7", Days adopt all of the delicate splendor that made us all fall for Johnny Marr's guitar lines within The Smiths' catalog, and the James-like approach of Australia's criminally neglected Youth Group. The end result is a luxuriant collection of indiepop tunes, contemplative but upbeat, without either leaning taking up too much of the focus; a delicate balance between sweetness and reflection that easily could have become a saccharine-sweet mess in less able hands. Along with The Mary Onettes, Days have established themselves as among the best musicians continuing the lineage set up in 1980s.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

Larsen & Furious Jane
Zen sucker
Morningside Records

Despite the laughable name of both the group and their album, Larsen & Furious Jane are by far one of the best bands I've heard this year. An amalgamation of the melancholic immediacy of fellow countrymen Kashmir and the more contemplative vein of Interpol's register -- though this American influence only extends so far, most notably on "A deathbed conversion". A naming of influences also does little with an act like Larsen & Furious Jane; the majority of the record is difficult to place in this way. "Zen sucker" is a wonderfully luxuriant album -- its various components are in no hurry, despite the rather short length of the songs (only two tracks break the 4-minute mark), taking their time to build off the first moments of a composition and creating a extraordinarily functional mass of instrumentation, the timbre of the voice chosen to appropriately settle into this mixture: an almost Ian Curtis/Paul Banks tone adopted on "A deathbed conversion"; a somber, nearly-spoken register taken with "Snakes in the grass"; a contemporary Brit-pop style utilized within "A car that comes with the job"; a very Scandinavian quality (similar to The Radio Dept.'s approach) imbued into "Fine". In the end, "Zen sucker" is a record painted in almost every despondent, sorrowful hue that we've come to expect from Kashmir's contemporaries, but that somehow fits into these early summer days. There is a fragile sense of a hope intertwined in the beauty of Larsen & Furious Jane's music -- sometimes that's all you need.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The Silent Ballet on the new Mats/Morgan Band live album "Heat beats": https://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1453/Default.aspx

Here's a bit of a review concerning Norwegian act Sigh & Explode's recent appearance at the Great Escape Festival in London: https://litresandgrams.blogspot.com/2008/05/sigh-and-explode.html

Anna Ternheim
Halfway to five points
Decca Records

Honestly, we will never hear Anna Ternheim sing songs more cheerfully than "Today is a good day" (track 3), but that doesn't matter. Not at all. She can be called Sweden's singer/songwriter queen when it comes to English lyrics and songs, with dark mystifying tunes. This is sloshed high-quality music, this is fragile and fragile is good, fragile is to invite us listeners to participate. You could recently hear her on National Public Radio's World Cafe with David Dye and maybe you have seen her around here and there, and maybe you have caught some of her tunes, which according to some can be abscribed a likeness to PJ Harvey or Nick Cave. Anyhow, her new album, "Halfway to five points", was recorded during this winter when Anna Ternheim successfully merged old handpicked songs from the album "Separation road" with a few fresh ones into this new assemblage, portraying one of those stay-home and stay-inside-days, when you just want to stay in your bed, daydream and let the mind go elsewhere. I would say this is a new dreamier Ternheim sound going more narrative, with an orchestral touch and more experimental acoustic instruments which, for example, make the new version of "Girl laying down" exquisite. The more "Halfway to five points" is played in my stereo, the more it makes sense and the more beautiful it's turning out to be. I just want to stay inside, listen to her fragile tunes, stare up in the ceiling and exist in the music. This album has a good freaking message.
- Therese Buxfäldt

Paper Thin Walls reviews new music from Finnish artist Lau Nau: https://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=1617

Anna Leong
Terrorarium
White Weekend

Sometimes, going into a record-review without knowing anything about the band can be rewarding - like watching a movie without having seen the usual Don LaFontaine-narrated trailer madness before and then being caught off guard by its strength. My encounter with Umeå-based indiepop-rockers Anna Leong's new album "Terrorarium" was something like that: You'll have to excuse me, but given the bandname, I'd half expected a female singer-songwriter, so Anna Leong's slightly psychedelic indiepop-rock came at some surprise to me. One could surely dig out countless reference points and influences to their seemingly classic sound, their choruses rich with vocal harmonies, and the very "Swedish-indie" voice of singer Jonas Bergsten that gives everything a more modern edge. But what makes the record stand out amidst other retro-ish acts of the moment is its extremely solid songwriting and the sheer amount of catchy melodies and hooks. Somehow though, the album's riches are also its biggest downside. Despite all the accessibility and pop-ness, the eleven songs feel a bit too disparate and make it hard for the listener to get a coherent feel for the album. The band seems to have quite a turbulent record with the music-industry in the past (and now run their own label), and I hope that their situation will allow them to release further albums that focus more on their obvious songwriting-strengths and less on post-psychedelia and sound-variability. Still, a recommendable album with a couple of highly virulent popsongs.
- Arnulf Köhncke

PopMatters reviews Bobby & Blumm: https://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/bobby-and-blumm-everybody-loves/

Bobby & Blumm
Live @ Create Berlin Showroom, Berlin, 05/17/08

Surely you've seen musicians after not-so-well-received shows when they wear their "well, that sucked"-smiles and sip on their beers. Last Saturday was one of those days for me when I went to a magazine (well, actually it's a little box full of art) release party at Berlin's "Create Berlin Showroom" where Bobby & Blumm (Bobby Baby and FS Blumm) were set to play. And it could have been such a great evening - free beer, free chocolate, beautiful songs - if not for all the other people who were apparently only there for the beer, the chocolate, and possibly the art. Frank and Ella's setup was entirely computer-free; mostly he just played the guitar while she sang or made friendly noises with a music box, a keyboard and other assorted toys. But the atmosphere and noise from all the talking were just not right for Bobby and Blumm's careful and unobtrusive music, even though they deliberately left out their quietest songs (such as the beautiful "Not at home"). Still, the little hints of how it'd be to see them play a "real" gig made me regret the times that I've already missed them perform before. Better luck next time, I guess.
- Arnulf Köhncke

The Silent Ballet is not so impressed with Tape's new album "Luminarium": https://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1422/Default.aspx

Pitchfork reviews Norwegian artist Silje Nes: https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/50389-ames-room

The Guardian gives Alphabeat a 5-star review: https://music.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,2279917,00.html