Paper Thin Walls on "You can't steal a gift" by El Perro Del Mar: https://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=1443

Borko
Celebrating life
Morr Music

The album cover and track titles would lead you to believe that "Celebrating life" is a lighthearted affair, but the actual material present on the record is much less jocular than one might expect. Borko are very much an Icelandic affair, sharing some aesthetic traits with Múm and, at times, Sigur Rós – especially on "Shoo ba ba" which oddly parallels features of the "Music for split sides" EP Sigur Rós released in 2004, sometimes referred to by its track names: "Ba ba / Ti ki / Di do". This said, Borko are less sprawling than Sigur Rós and, at times, more organically composed than Múm. These similarities and disparities, paired with the overly-apparent blitheness, allow Borko quite a bit of freedom. "Summer logic", one of the more demure tracks on "Celebrating life", flows into the playful, shifting "Doo doo doo" with little difficulties. "Spoonstabber" feels much more akin to an experimental Seabear composition than any of other the aforementioned Icelandic groups, yet not divorced from the rest of the material. As quirky as serious music can be, "Celebrating life" feels lost somewhere between an indirect, ambient Broken Social Scene and a more instrumentally-anchored Múm, and definitely worth a listen. m
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

PopMatters reviews Kamera's US debut "Ressurection": https://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/56029/kamera-resurrection/

Sophie Rimheden
Traveller
NONS/SRP

This latest offering from Sophie Rimheden wades deeper into experimental fields with reasonable success. Her sweet melodic voice is backed up with support from dark and unlikely places, most notably by Swedish hip-hop artist Aaron Phiri on the first track to be released from this album, "Go away". This pairing of soft and sweet with hard-edged hip-hop is surprising and played out to nice effect, without overdoing it. Other stand-out tracks include "Stay the night" and title track "Travel". The whole album reaches a tricky balance of sticking closely to a theme without ever becoming repetitive.
- Rhiannon Elston

Markus Krunegård
Markusevangeliet
V2/Universal

Every issue I had with Laakso's "Mother, am I good looking?" is beautifully absent from frontman Markus Krunegård's debut solo effort. The closest "Markusevangeliet" comes to disappointing is in its occasional similarity to Laakso, but, with Krunegård's band being one of the most original voices to come out of Sweden in years, there is little chance of this spoiling the record. Sadly, for those who do not speak Swedish, Krunegård's decision to sing in this Scandinavian tongue may somewhat blight the album as much of its anthemic power becomes lyrically indecipherable and the ability to sing along is removed. I truly hope this facet of "Markusevangeliet" can be surmounted by non-Swedes, and the strength of Krunegård's songwriting is impressive enough alone to help one overlook the language barrier, but it's worth listening to some of the tracks on his Myspace page to make sure you don't purchase a record that you are too distanced from. Songs like "Samma nätter väntar alla" and "Ibland gör man rätt, ibland gör man fel" are as fascinating in their songwriting and instrumentation as they are defined by Krunegård's dour, lacerating lyrics, and one can hardly fail to notice his unique timbre and delivery as almost an instrument of its own. "Se på mig nu, vad tycker du?" and "Den som dör får se/Markus kyrkogård" are two of the best compositions that Krunegård has ever done, especially when the latter enters into its final section with Krunegård singing: "Om du är rädd sluta med det. Om du är bränd och rädd lägg av med det..."

Despite all of the warnings that Laakso's impressive catalog sent out, "Markusevangeliet" affected me in a way that few records have ever been able to. Markus Krunegård may very well have crafted the best album of 2008.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

Dusted reviews the new Diskjokke album "Staying in": https://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4155

All About Jazz reviews the new Fire Room album "Broken music", an all-star collaboration featuring Ken Vandermark together with Norwegian artists Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) and Lasse Marhaug (electronics): https://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=28985

The Silent Ballet reviews the new album "Celebrating life" from Icelandic artist Borko: https://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1302/Default.aspx

PopMatters on the US debut of Norwegian AOR act Big Bang: https://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/big-bang-wild-bird/

Jan Johansson
Piano
Heptagon

This is a collection of piano works from the late, great Jan Johansson. Spanning 1960 to 1968 the works go from straight bop to post-bop while touching on the free jazz that began to emerge during the period. Johansson's melodic playing is particularly of note, as he goes from slow bop to free improvisation with almost the same melodic ease. While there are a few flow problems with the collection, which is understandable, it removes something from the overall enjoyment of the whole record. Being totally ignorant of Johansson before, I thought this was a great introduction to a mostly unknown jazz great on these shores and that it compels me to investigate more. Perhaps the most interesting songs on here are Johansson's exploration of Swedish folk songs in jazz contexts, which are simply awesome for the ignorants like me. Definitely a record to consider if you are Johansson fans as well as curious bebop, post-bop and hard-bop enthusiasts.
- Simon Thibaudeau

Niccokick
The good times we shared, were they so bad?
Startracks

Niccokick don't seem to have changed much since I last saw them live with Snook four years ago (no, not in Uppsala). They still very much embody the typical sound of "Swedish" indie-rock with its anthemic melodies and carpets of distorted guitars. Singer Andreas Söderlund has been pretty active in the meantime (in sideproject Sounds like Violence and as producer of acts such as Hello Saferide and David and the Citizens) and it shows. Niccokick's sound is more diverse on their second LP than previously -- the additional synths and the odd cello have definitely helped. And while Andreas' voice comes across as desperate as ever, it's nice to hear him cover other emotions as well. The songwriting is similarly passionate and direct, yet never embarrassing, and generally very dancable and catchy. Actually, that's also the record's main problem: all that energy, passion, and directness can become a bit too much at times. It's still a very good indierock album though, great for the dancefloor and probably even better when performed live on stage.
- Arnulf Köhncke

PopMatters likes the new In Flames album: https://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/56890/in-flames-a-sense-of-purpose/

Pitchfork reviews the new Sally Shapiro record "Remix romance vol. 1": https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/49918-remix-romance-vol-1

RebekkaMaria
Queen of France
A:larm Music

Icy, avant-garde electro pop has long been a fixture of Scandinavian music, ranging from the dense, arty compositions of The Knife to pop flavored chart toppers like Robyn. "Queen of France" (the debut solo album from Lampshade frontwoman RebekkaMaria Andersson) falls somewhere in the middle. The first half of the record was definitely crafted with a pop song structure in mind, while the latter half is much more experimental and less immediate. Tracks like "Yours truly" and "She lion" hit you over the head on the first listen with their confident melodies and infectious attitude, but from there, the album becomes decidedly less mainstream. The bizarre helium-induced "Army of foxy" initiates this change, but it's tame compared to head-scratchers like "The foam" and "Happy birthday". Fans of the genre will love it, and there's no denying the creativity that went into the record, but most listeners will probably wish that the entire album played to the strengths of the first four tracks.
- Nick James

Envelopes
Here comes the wind
Brille

Despite them paraphrasing Bonnie Tyler, sometimes cramming one to many ideas into a song, and a some general "wackiness", Envelopes are utterly charming. I love their first album, so it's great to hear that they've managed to get even better for their second one. They've got magnificent melodies, alternating boy/girl vocals (something that all bands would be better off with, as far as I'm concerned), original lyrics and they sound a bit like a mix between Beat Happening, Violent Femmes and Velvet Underground, but without coming across as dated (they sound very 2008, in a good way). I've been listening to this album now constantly for many weeks, and my love for it just grows day by day. "Here comes the wind" is a super fresh and varied album that deserves to be heard by everyone, and it makes me hope for a long and productive career from Envelopes.
- Simon Tagestam