Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe. All my Songs of the Week are featured on my Top of the Poptastic playlist, along with the rest of my faves from 2017.
Ask any Scandi music fan about the reality TV format that the UK needs to import, and they’ll instantly answer: Så mycket bättre. The show, which is approaching the end of its eighth season in Sweden, is based on a Dutch series. Seven successful artists live together for eight days, takings turns to perform each other’s songs in front of the original performer. The cover versions are released as singles, and every year the show produces several hits – some of the biggest and best have included Mikrofonkåt by September and One Last Time by Miriam Bryant. This year’s line-up was particularly strong on current pop acts, including Eric Saade, Sabina Ddumba and Icona Pop. The latter provided the standout performances in my opinion, managing to make every song sound like something they would have released. I was particularly excited when indie-pop artist Moneybrother’s week came around and I saw they’d been given his only hit, the poptastic They’re Building Walls Around Us. This song brings back great memories of when indie-pop music was actually a going concern – and the best stuff was, of course, coming out of Scandinavia. The Icona Pop version of They’re Building Walls Around Us doesn’t have the same orchestral feel as the original, but their electro-pop take is just as anthemic, with an added dose of joyous bounciness. This will definitely appeal to any fans of I Love It and the girls’ other work.