Björn Kleinhenz creates pleasant folk-pop with a romantic edge. Like a Swedish version of something by Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, “The Mountain Pt. 2″ features a soft acoustic guitar, finger-plucked to a calming bliss and accompanied by beautiful vocals. Kleinhenz coos: I am a mountain now, I am the sea and sky, I am a puff of smoke coming through your window in the chorus. Musical and vocal, “The Mountain Pt. 2″ hits all the right notes.

The Sweet Serenades are, well, just that; a sweet compilation of all things happy or sad, in mourning or bliss. This Swedish duo look as though they could be pounding lagers amongst muscly, flanneled woodsmen, but damned if they wouldn’t hesitate to break into a beautiful ballad at any moment. “Die Young”, from their amazing album Balcony Cigarettes, is a beautiful track serenading (pun, intended) one of the greatest yet most heartbreaking mistakes human beings can make: the one night stand. With guest vocals from Club 8’s …

Tobias Fröberg mixes folk and pop with the electro side of both genres in his new song “When We Go To War”. The video compliments the song’s electronic elements thanks to outstanding performances by dancers Kage Mulvilai and Azumi Oe. Filmed by Shane Sigler and directed by Petter Ringbom, “When We Go To War” is a classic good versus evil, light versus dark, carnal and savage portrayal of the human spirit and its brute animalistic heritage. Bringing performance art into a music video is an excellent concept …

It’s long been my opinion that anything Johan Angergård touches magically turns to gold. This belief has stood strong with all his projects, from The Legends to Acid House Kings. Club 8 has consistently come third on that list, but with “Western Hospitality” from the forthcoming The People’s Record, everything is about to change. It’s not that The Boy Who Wouldn’t Stop Dreaming didn’t have merit — it most certainly did. It just wasn’t as powerful as more recent albums by the other two, Over And Over …

My first impression of the first track off Sambassadeur’s new LP, European, is that the song is easily their finest yet. With an emotive piano intro and outro, orchestral pop sensibilities, and schizophrenic percussion, “Stranded” seems to be a turning point for the band. Sambassadeur has always been a group to flaunt instrumentation, but here it’s never been as clear and forward, from the strings that enter as the introductory piano fades, to the deep clarinet solo just past the midpoint.

Beginning with a sample (bonus points if you can pinpoint that voice) and leading into The Radio Dept.’s now signature eletro-pop meets fuzzed out, jangle-worthy synth lines, “Heaven’s On Fire” promises great things for the band’s forthcoming record Clinging To A Scheme. It carries on precisely where the band headed post the release of their second LP, Pet Grief; songs like singles “Freddie And The Trojan Horse” and “David”.

Kristian Svensson crafts some pretty chill pop music, encompassing a space between the drone-heavy, space-friendly reverb and the upbeat-yet-emotional electronic. His latest work as And Oh, So Slowly He Turned is By Some Godforsaken Lake Up North. Packed with lovable lo-fi pop songs (easily recognizable as Swedish) and containing light hints of experimentation, the album opens with a light guitar riff and full-bodied (but mixed down) percussion in “Demensia”. The vocals, like the percussion, are eerie and soft — they fit in the background while the instrumentation …

The duo of Lindefelt and Fredrik have come a long way since their early work together under their indie pop guise of The Lovekevins. With two entirely too brief EPs, the band transformed into The LK again with Lindefelt at the helm. This was the duo’s first foray into noise-pop, and the single Private Life Of A Cat was our introduction to their new sound. That in itself would lead directly into the band’s first LP, Vs. The Snow. Up to, and including, that album, the …

Francis has been hard at work on a new album and, given a first listen to their new single, it’s easy to hear this band has made some tremendous strides forward. But first, take a step back. Their self-titled EP from 2009 was pretty solid. It allowed them to shine in a very unique manner – being a band that took Sweden into a tavern and got it so hopped up on booze that a drunken punk side began to show. It had sloppy moments, but …

There is a time and place for a band like the pop frenzied Shout Out Louds. And that time is obviously now. Their latest single “Walls” is a verbal demonstration and display of affection toward the ever-changing times being seen throughout the world. There is an independent spirit raging in the youth of now. Kids want action! They want hot-sauced moodiness and a deranged sense of anti-socialism. That’s just the way it is. And this band is the Swedish ambassadors to the new …