Scan Magazine
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Columns
Best new Scandi music in March Swedish singing and songwriting talent Nea is back with a brand-new tune for us to get into - and get right into it you well and truly should! This isn’t like anything else out there at the moment. On A Lover Like Me she pairs a throw-modesty-tothe-wind lyric about how great a lover she is, with a wonderfully eccentric production that takes ’60s soul sounds and lets them run riot with the music software of today. The end result is a hell of a lot of fun!
Danish artist Drew Sycamore is back with some sensational new sounds via her latest release In The Club. Said sensations are those of pure, unadulterated, dancefloor euphoria. She’s spliced retro synthpop with modern-day techno-pop and thrown in some ’80 ball-scene bang for good measure. All the ingredients have come together beautifully though, and we’re presented with a fierce floor-filler that’ll stay with us through 2023.
She delivered one of the best albums of 2022, Dirt Femme, but she’s not done with us just yet. Tove Lo is back with a new single – Borderline. And in keeping with that recent album of hers, this new tune has plenty of bang under its bonnet too. Tinged with a retro-chic funk, the song actually is a writing collaboration between Tove Lo and global superstar Dua Lipa.
Swedish artist LOVA has got a story to tell on her new song. I Raised Your Boyfriend is a brilliantly cutting ode to the new girlfriend of her ex – the man she helped mold into the apparent catch he is today. As well as lyrical perfection, she’s also got the gorgeous pop melody sorted, backed by a softgrunge production. Clever in composition, simple in delivery – this is a terrific listen.
By Karl Batterbee
www.scandipop.co.uk
Monthly Illustration
Darkness
By Maria Smedstad
Scandi noir has a lot to answer for. My hometown used to get limited hours of daylight in the winter. We stumbled to and from school through black winter forests, yet I have no particular memory of it being dark. How did we find our way? I’ve no idea. But I don’t recall being afraid. Yes, there was the vague notion that something mythical might appear, like a troll or something, but that was more excitement than dread. Now it’s a different story. I’m not sure if it’s a natural part of growing up, or maybe it’s all that Scandi Noir, but the blackness of Swedish winter feels different now. Those looming shapes in the gloom among the trees? Perhaps they aren’t kindly elves, perhaps they are creepy murderers?! “It’s the lack of snow,” my sister assures me. “When it’s snowing, it’s actually really bright.” I know what she means, but at the same time, it’s really not very bright at all. 102
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Issue 152
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March 2023
Gatwick airport, as I was after my most recent trip to the Swedish countryside. There was a brief moment of darkness when the taxi driver was given my destination and declared: “no idea where that is – I’m from Leeds”. But as with all darkness, you can always find a chink of light if you try hard enough. In this case, it was the comforting glow of his smartphone satnav.
Maybe I’ve become too English? With fewer trolls about, perhaps all you’re left with are murderers? In any case, I’d never been so happy to be back in the bright orange glare of busy
Maria Smedstad moved to the UK from Sweden in 1994. She received a degree in Illustration in 2001, before settling in the capital as a freelance cartoonist, creating the autobiographical cartoon Em. Maria writes a column on the trials and tribulations of life as a Swede in the UK.