Swede and Skogen – Fly
You’re moving awfully fast there! You’re running through the crowd and not turning your head, regardless of who’s waiting to tap you on the shoulder. You know they want! Everyone wants to get you to stop long enough so that they can sell you something.
Even the most dedicated listeners of pop-rock music have learned to tune out some of the tunes and jingles that they’re forced to hear on a regular day. They do it just as efficiently as managing to ignore the big soft drink ads in the middle of the city while staring right at them.
It’s a sound strategy and all. But do that too long and you might miss out on things that are magical, such as the sounds produced by Swede and Skogen. In a world that seems to be constantly running out of time, the band’s music feels like it’s here to give you a few minutes that are on the house and off the books.
Swede and Skogen’s “Fly” is the musical doppelganger to a really nice travel book. It makes you want to think that endless holidays are not just possible, but a goal to be achieved. The band’s sound is a mix of gentle melancholy and unintrusive hopefulness, a kind of easy-going alt-inspired folk-rock. It’s the kind of thing worth stopping for!
Anthony Ruptak – Phantasmagoria
I imagine that if you were to go out on a date with someone who’s just won a famous pageant and or landed the role in a Hollywood production, it’s likely that they’ll be more nervous than you are. What would they be? They could say the dumbest thing possible and would just need to bat their eyelashes and flash a smile before everything is forgotten. Regardless of their modesty, they would know their power over most people willing to take them out.
Songwriters are a lot like that. Anthony Ruptak must know it. But these ones are, generally, in a minority, who have figured out that the kind of power they yield has a fantastic chance of getting their dates to pay for a meal in an expensive restaurant. The ones who really know their power can make people on command and get them to smile, relieved when they finally tell them, “Hey, it’s not so bad!”
It’s rare to hear a modern songwriter who is not, or does not claim to be, anxious because of the state of the world. Anthony Ruptak does, but also, and this is critical, knows how to make you feel it as well. “Phantasmagoria” is about how we’ve messed up the planet, screwed ourselves over, and how either one of us could have a heart attack at any moment. It might make you want to go out and plant a tree. But it’s when Ruptak reaches the song’s pinnacle, when the folk-punk-styled vocals start to break down, that you can’t help but wipe a tear away. Ruptak wields great power here, indeed.
