Nordic Rox is back on the air again and Sven and Per are ready to continue the Swedish ’80s list. The guys are sitting in Stockholm for a change. Normally, they record in Halmstad on the Swedish west coast, but today they moved up to Stockholm. Sven says it’s good to be here sometimes, not too often. Per says Sven is such a small town boy. Haha.
They are going to check out the Swedish ’80s list from position 20 to 16, but before they dig deep into that, they are playing some real hard-hitting Swedish garage rock. Per introduces the first song, Something Wicked by The Teenage Idols and asks the listeners to check out this guitar sound.
Gemini by Johnossi feat. GERD comes next. It’s a duet and they recorded this one for their album last year. Making a duet is a good idea, Per says. It’s a great song, he likes it a lot. It’s very nice.
Blow My Cool by The Soundtrack Of Our Lives is the third song played. It’s from their 1996 debut album, Welcome To The Infant Freebase. Sven says it was a jam-packed CD. It was a very long, but a very good CD with lots of great songs, Per says. It was a very promising first album and they fulfilled that promise with a lot of great albums and many great songs, Sven adds. According to PG, they are one of the best bands ever in Sweden. Sven agrees. The singer Ebbot Lundberg played in Union Carbide Productions, another band, a sort of punkish band. They had broken up, but he had written a lot of songs. Then he got the band Soundtrack together, and band members came up with songs as well. So he had between 60 and 70 songs for the debut album. They went to the record company and said, you know, we want to record everything and release our debut CD box. 70 songs. But in the end, they made a debut CD, which is 70 minutes long. It’s like a double album and it includes only 20 songs. Haha. It’s a good band.
The guys are talking about an article that Per read from a well-known music journalist saying that the guitars are coming back into pop music. He welcomes that. If there was a band thing happening in pop music, that would be fantastic. People playing the same song together at the same time. How about that? Haha.
The ’80s list is approaching with record speed, but before that, they play Canine Prey by Tapefly.
Then comes One Track Mind by The Facer, a crazy sound from 2000. It’s 25 years ago, Jesus Christ. Time flies when you’re having fun. That’s modern music compared to the ’80s list.
The guys are at No. 20 and they picked a song from X Models. A great track that was all over Swedish radio in the early ’80s. 1981, just when the digital thing happened and people started using drum machines and stuff like that. This was a number one song for a very long time. The singer is Efva Attling who nowadays is a very famous jewelry designer. Back then she was an ex photo model. The band was label mates with Per’s power pop band. They were at EMI Records. Per adds that this song was produced by Lasse Lindbom who was also producing PG’s band, Gyllene Tider and who eventually became the boyfriend to Marie Fredriksson in Roxette. He produced Marie’s solo albums in the ’80s as well, so there is a lot of common ground there. Två av oss by X Models is a big hit from 1981. It translates into Two Of Us.
Moving to No. 19, we find Marie Fredriksson on the list with Ännu doftar kärlek. A familiar voice, Per says. Marie, of course, was the singer in Roxette. This is her breakthrough song, her first big hit in the ’80s, 1984, taken from her debut solo album. It’s still her biggest song as a solo artist. Mr. G thinks it’s a wonderful little song and it made Marie a big star immediately. There are a lot of cover versions of this one. Sven says, the funny thing is, even though it wasn’t funny in those years, that Marie’s star was rising as Per’s was going down. Per lost his recording contract in 1985. When they started Roxette in 1986, PG was the underdog. Five years earlier it was the opposite, Sven says. Mr. G says that’s how it works in life. Anyway, talking about Ännu doftar kärlek, Per still thinks it’s a really beautiful melody and a beautiful lyric and it’s always a treat to hear Marie singing.
At the next position the guys are playing a great Swedish female artist called Titiyo. Talking To The Man In The Moon was a very big song in 1989. It was produced and written by Magnus Frykberg, who was a percussionist and also, Per guesses, the boyfriend of Titiyo. He did a great job on that song. It’s a great track. Original. It occupied the airwaves in Sweden. Titiyo is the half-sister of Neneh Cherry. She has been around forever and she had a really big song called Come Along in 2001. That’s her biggest track and she is a great singer. Sven agrees.
At No. 17 the guys are changing direction a bit, because they are going back to Swedish ’80s garage rock. The prime movers back in those days, Sven thinks, were The Nomads. Per says it’s a great band and he thinks the song is from 1984. Sven says he hates to correct Per, but it’s 1983. PG says Sven is always welcome to correct him. Haha. The Nomads made an album called Temptation Pays Double and this song is called Where The Wolf Bane Blooms. It’s an outstanding track in PG’s book.
No. 16 is Himlen är oskyldigt blå by an amazing artist who is unfortunately not with us anymore. Ted Gärdestad was an amazing composer who was huge in the ’70s. His brother wrote the lyrics to this song and it was released in 1980, that’s why it fit into this list. The title translates into The Sky Is Innocent Blue. It’s actually a Swedish translation of an English song that he made in 1979. The original was called Blue Virgin Isles. It’s really beautiful. Per thinks Ted’s sense of melodies is outstanding. He was 15 or so when he had his breakthrough. He was just one of a kind. He was produced by Björn and Benny from ABBA, so he was in good hands and an amazing talent.
Nordic Rox continues with great style, Sven says. A Roxette song sneaked in here from the Room Service album 2001. It’s the last song on the album My World, My Love, My Life.
This Perfect Day by Fishtank is wrapping up today’s Nordic Rox and the show ends with Cigarettes by Anita Lindblom, as usual.
Still is from the Bag Of Trix talks recorded by Anders Roos.
Thanks for your support, Sven!