So this week we hope to have a bumper week of features, with releases from 'Big Fox', 'Orochen', Siv Jakobsen, 'Dolorifics', and brief album reviews from 'Folke Nikanor' and Martin Månsson Sjöstrand Trio - I'm sure there's a few I've forgotten. But we'll start Monday with an upbeat track from Swedish band 'Maple & Rye', who manage to fuse together a high energy melodic style with darker and more thoughtful lyrics in their track 'Con of the Century' - the 1st release from their debut album which is due in May.
'Maple & Rye' are now a 4 piece band from Gothenburg, but were originally formed back in 2014 by Gustav Rybo-Molin and Leo Lönnroth with an aim was to write indie pop with harmonies. The development of the band into a 4 piece enabled them to develop their harmonised melodies further, and the band have flourished in the early stages as band with an EP release, impressive live performances and a pretty astonishing viral hit for their track 'Hymns of Poseidon', which has had close to 3 million streams on Spotify.
'Con of the Century' hasn't had the opportunity to make quite such an impression, but actually I like it more than their previous release, simply for the fresh sounding clear cut tune, delivered at pace and accompanied by brass and distinctive harmonies. Lyrically however the song has a different feel, with a darkness and desperation to the words as they consider the perils of the demon drink - 'The curb is my friend, the bottle is my lover, how will I turn this shit over''. There is a deliberate contrast which reminds me of a gloriously upbeat song (that I can't track down) by UK indie band 'Not Bit of Wood' (pre 'Clearlake') entitled 'I'll Kill Myself'.
Anyway this is 'Con of the Century'.
We'll try and bring you information on the 'Maple & Rye' album when it arrives, and in the meantime you can find them on Facebook.