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sjoblom demons
Artist: Sjöblom
Title: Demons
Genre: Ice-Cold-Quality-Pop
Release Date: 8th October 2021
Label: Reptile Music


Album Review

I think deep down we all wish that Sweden was crap at something, but it just isn’t, is it? And when it comes to producing artists and musicians, there feels to be an unjust in-balance with the rest of us mere mortals. While we have to cower in fear at which of us will produce the next JEDWARD, NICKELBACK or THE CHEEKY GIRLS, Sweden just quietly (and probably a little smugly) gets on with gifting ice-cold, quality Pop to the rest of the world like it was handing out snow (I think I’ve just invented a genre there). SJÖBLOM is one of those thoughtful little gifts, thank you very much, and just in time for Christmas. Lovely.

This is the second full-length album by Johan Sjöblom Eliot, and if you’ve not crossed his path before in this guise, he’s also a founder member and co-singer of Post-Punkers THE EXPLODING BOY. Because you’re not allowed to be just good in one band in Sweden, oh no, you’ve got to shake it all about in another one too. Skip the rather pointless intro, and you get straight into the kind of no-nonsense, easy pop that many artists would need a production team to assemble.

Yet here it sounds so natural you can almost picture them, in the studio, ticking each one off with a ruthless efficiency that belies the complexity of actually creating something simplistically melodic in the first place. Both ‘Telephone’ and ‘Tape’ are excellent, and ‘Brand New Life’ bubbles and fizzes about with an optimism that’s reserved and mature, despite the feeling it wants to skip through fields of daisies kissing cows and showering the locals with petals. ‘A Game’ wanders briefly into DURAN DURAN territory - now that would be a collaboration - and ‘Home’ flits about all acoustic and delicate, even managing to make finger-clicking not sound dreadfully contrived.

There’s a scuzzy strut to ‘The Storm’, a bit of bongo action (wait… come back!) and a beautiful duet with singer-songwriter ANNA SJODEN on the title track, plus a graceful maturity throughout ‘A Thousand Words’. And final track ‘Sad Song 3’ starts off like a disarmingly lovely OASIS ballad before settling into a thankfully less Manchester swoosh of emotional melancholy, leaving fast fading footprints in the snow. Gorgeous.

‘Demons’, as a whole, feels carefully thought through and packaged - a rare thing these days -with no filler or extras, a finely balanced mix of songs carefully placed in a track-listing order that makes sense (see recent “controversy” over shuffling album tracks). This is simply good, melodic adult pop, thoughtful and mature, but with enough edge to keep it sharply focussed and constantly relevant. I bet they can’t play cricket, those Swedes. I bet they are crap at that.


Tracklist

01. Number Ten
02. Telephone
03. Tape
04. Brand New Life
05. A Game
06. Home
07. The Storm
08. Demons
09. A Thousand Words
10. Sad Song 3


Line-up

Johan Sjoblom Eliot


Website

https://linktr.ee/sjoblomofficial / https://www.facebook.com/sjoblomofficial


Cover Picture

sjoblom demons


Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10




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