Club 8

Sweden must have some sort of mandatory education program in pop music appreciation, because they seem to keep producing amazing artists like Club 8. This, their fourth album, comes only a few months after their last self-titled release, which ushered in a more laid-back, quieter era for the pop-obsessed duo of Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergard (who also happen to be a couple). Spring Came, Rain Fell is another collection of dreamy songs centred around Komstedt’s soft, sultry voice, although Angergard steps up to the mic on "Close To Me,” the most electro-pop sounding track on the album. Like their sonic cousins in Saint Etienne, Club 8 meander between delicate guitars and slick synth melodies with a noticeable jazzy influence of artists like Bebel Gilberto. Angergard produces and writes all the material, which isn’t a huge surprise, as he is quite the enigma of the Swedish indie pop scene, as a member of bands like Acid House Kings, Poprace and many others. However, with Komstedt by his side as Club 8, his work has really found a groove and the material keeps getting better. Spring Came, Rain Fell is such a consistently pleasing album, one where no individual tracks take the spotlight, a testament to the songwriting talent this duo possesses. An excellent summer record, this is the audio equivalent of eating something sugary sweet and getting a nice massage at the same time. It’s almost irritating how Club 8 make it seem so easy to create pop music of this calibre. They might claim to be geeks in anoraks, but don’t let these Scandinavians fool you, they are talented, good-looking, and very, very cool, which is quite the recipe for pop success.