What if I moved to Sweden and started a band? One that reflected my love of 80's UK bands like Prefab Sprout, The Style Council, Aztec Camera? I'd wear espadrilles and a crisp Thom Brown pant. Sadly, I didn't and I don't. But that band still exists in The Sonnets, a new group from Stockholm. When you hear their first single, Sebastian Said (video below), it's hard not to acknowledge the serious debt to Style Council's Shout To The Top (evidence). In fact, they recently told a blog that "The Style Council EP 'á Paris [is] the most perfect and good-looking piece of pop music ever made."
I am known to scream "derivative!" at the top of my lungs, but I love this sound so much - and I think it's so unknown to younger audiences - that I don't mind the homage all.
The Sonnets' second single, No Hollywood Ending is out June 29 and you can watch that video here.
The band's debut album is called Western Harbour Blue and it's out in late summer/early fall. Here is what they say about it:
We wanted to make something that bright and pure. A pop music still blue-eyed, naive and and oh so young at heart. We were inspired by the things that brought us back to that feeling. The Style Council. The first summer with Charles and Sebastian in Brideshead Revisited. Prefab Sprout. Jimmy Connors last serve game against John McEnroe in the Wimbledon final in 1982. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.While we wait, here is a superb remix that brings a contemporary edge to the debut single...
The Sonnets Sebastian Said (Montauk Remix) right-click for free/legal MP3
The debut album is out in Japan in July, Sweden / NO / FI and DK on Aug 16, UK / FR/ IT and N America (digital) in September. Sebastian Said and its remixes are on iTunes US, among others, right now.
UPDATE: The album, sadly, turned out to be an utter piece of crap. DELETE.
Labels: Norway/Sweden, Up in '10
I want to love it but I'm not sold on the singer's voice yet.
His voice, like the lyrics, is strangely elusive. The trick will be to extend beyond ambiance with some proper songs.
Brilliant find, i'm oddly loving it a lot. At first i strangely thought it would be a new Donkeyboy (not a bad thing) but no, this is great! More please. MORE!
Wrong, you turned out to be crap. The album was great.