Hello Saferide – Anna (Watch)
I’m so pleased to see the beautiful, wonderful and fantastic Annika Norlin is back with her band Hello Saferide (which is NOT pronounced “safaridi”!), singing in English again and releasing poptastic hits in her native Sweden. This song is quite sad with its tale of the daughter that never was because her boyfriend left her, but it’s practically Alphabeat-esque compared to Säkert!’s song about a girl being raped in a park. Hello Saferide are one of my absolute favourite Swedish acts, and one of many reasons that it’s OK to like indie music, as long as it’s made in Sweden. The new album will be out on the 24th of this month, and I can’t wait to hear it!
83% Poptastic!
Dressy Bessy – Holler and Stomp (album) (Listen)
When I discovered Dressy Bessy around 2003, along with other cute American girl-groups like All Girl Summer Fun Band, Tiger Trap and The Softies, there was no such thing as MySpace, and indie music was barely represented at all in the UK charts. Now it’s ubiquitous, and the definition of indie has become very fuzzy, but if indie music had retained the definition which these bands fit into, then I’d be quite a fan of the genre. I’m happy to find that Dressy Bessy haven’t changed their style too much, and they have some fun and catchy tunes on their MySpace, such as Electrified and Simple Girlz. Nothing’s quite up to the poptasticness of their all-time highest point, If You Should Try To Kiss Her, but they’re a rare band who manage to be cool and good at the same time, which is definitely a useful talent.
75% Poptastic!