
Nya Världens Gamar – Framtiden
Genre: Punk, Pop Rock, Garage Rock
Yes, the original punks were right. There’s plenty of distance you can cover on the back of speed and aggression as fuel. And it’s really quiet to hear that in 2024, with so many varieties of loud, fast, aggressive music, this formula still works. This is like a simple, classic recipe. It’s something that anyone can whip up, and few can mess up.
Still, if we’re honest, modern versions of Sex Pistols or The Clash would have far more rivals in 2024 than they did back in 1976. They’d probably need to live through the idignity if playing festival warm-up gigs before crowds there to watch face fainted heavy-metal bands from Ohio singing about Satan. And, they’d need something besides speed and aggression to get crowds on their side.
Thankfully for Nya Världens Gamar, the band’s nihilism isn’t matched by cynicism toward singalong melodies. They are Swedish, after all, and if there’s one thing that the Swedes do well, except for furniture, it is to write pop songs. “Framtiden” has every bit of the grit that you’d expect from a modern punk song, but also provides the hooks and emotionality. Sometimes old recipes still work, but need a few extra ingredients to surprise.
Dead End Sun – Met a Girl
If you really love pop music, you can’t possibly afford yourself to think that a virtuoso player who studied it at University will be the one to shape it. It’s not just that this would be hard to stomach. Frankly, it’s nearly impossible. It would be like an esteemed college professor writing nursery rhymes, Andy Warhol illustrating a children’s book, or a Parisian chef making a great omelet.
It’s not that any of those things are easy to make. No way! They just appear simple. They lack complexity because this is not the thing that makes them great. It’s the spirit behind them. It’s the desire to please people who can understand it.
And, more than anything, it’s a wonderful promise. One day, you, too, could stumble onto a great tune like that. When you do, you won’t need years of training either to make it count. This ain’t Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Suggestion.
Dead End Sun’s “Met a Girl” is as simple and as effective as a garage-rock tune can be. It’s a boisterous claim of winning the heart of a standoffish girl and an equally bold claim that this three-chord ditty can win your heart. You couldn’t pay Steve Vai a million dollars to play on this thing. And that’s alright. He’d probably ruin it by playing it too well and rushing into unrequired solos. Nah, it’s perfect the way it is. Doesn’t need to change a single thing.