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Eleven fantastic Swedish summer songs for May

As Justin Timberlake releases the surefire hit of the summer, Can't Stop The Feeling (written by Swedes, of course), The Local's music writer, Paul Connolly, offers up ten more great Swedish songs to see you through the month.

Published: 6 May 2016 13:22 CEST
Eleven fantastic Swedish summer songs for May
Northern Sweden's Goat are one of our picks this month. Photo: Goat Facebook

1. Justin Timberlake – Can’t Stop The Feeling

Max Martin and Shellback (both Swedes, natch) have written the summer hit of 2016 for Justin Timberlake – feelgood pop doesn’t get any better than this.


 

2. Lucas Nord – I Don’t Need Your Love

Lucas Nord is slowly garnering a following outside Scandinavia for his lush, dreamy pop. This gently scuffed chunk of midtempo melancholy will do his cause no harm.


 

3. Peg Parnevik – Ain’t No Saint

The Swedish soul scene is in rude health. Seinabo Sey’s Younger and Elias’s Revolution are two of the best recent soul songs from anywhere. This doesn’t quite reach those heights but there’s still much to love here.


4. Flume feat. Tove Lo – Say It

One of the many things to love about Tove Lo is her willingness to work with other artists. This grinding, soulful electronica may not her most commercial release to date but it’s compelling, addictive stuff.


5. Marlene Oak – How Long

More Swedish soul, this time with a grittier, bluesier feel. Brooding and intense.


 

6. Violet Days – Your Girl

This Stockholm band have been making complex, vivid pop music for three years without ever really breaking through. Your Girl is ace, however.


7. Hanna Järver – Alabamatröjan

Another sweetly melodic, musically adventurous song from Järver. It’s as if Steely Dan had been reincarnated in a Stockholm twentysomething’s body.


 

8. Goat – I Sing In Silence

Goat, from way, way up north (Korpilombolo) have become global alt-rock stars and have even signed with Nirvana’s first label, SubPop. This swampy, mystical guitar and flute haze is quite lovely.


 

9. The Fooo Conspiracy – Summer Love

Everything about this Swedish boy band – from the extra ‘o’ in their name to the Princess Diana-like frosted hair – is designed to annoy the hell out of anyone over 25. And yet, this is a quite fantastic pop song.


 

10. Sophia Somajo – Sapphire

Swedish electronica pioneers, The Knife, have left a deep bruise on Swedish pop, and this is nowhere more obvious than on the distorted, fairground mirror synths of this fantastic debut single.

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11. Veronica Maggio – Vi mot världen

A spine-tingling live rendition of a beautiful song.

For all the videos see our YouTube playlist here and to listen to the songs on Spotify go here.

CHRISTMAS

These German children’s songs bring tears to my eyes

When I arrived in Germany eight years ago I had no idea about German songs. But then I started working in a kindergarten and discovered a treasure trove of listening pleasure.

Published: 26 December 2018 20:31 CET
These German children's songs bring tears to my eyes
Photo: DPA

I started working at a bilingual kindergarten in Munich in 2009 where my German co-teacher loved to sing as much as I loved to listen. She opened my ears to some of the most melodious and famous German songs.

Once these ditties entered my ears, they stubbornly refused to leave. They were so devastatingly melodious that they wrung tears out of my eyes. They gripped me with a sweet pain, touched my soul and made me feel strangely incomplete when I didn't hear them.

I sang them in crowded market squares, hummed them in noisy U-Bahn stations when no one would hear me, and whistled them like a lark who had forgotten how to stop singing.

When I sang Leise rieselt der Schnee (Quietly flutters the snow) or Schneeflockchen, Weißröckchen (Little snow flake, little white dress), I didn't care if it was winter or summer. I didn't wait for Christmas to sing Kling, Glöckchen (Ring, little bell) or in der Weihnachtsbäckerei (In the Christmas bakery).

The love affair that began is as strong now as if it just started yesterday. I have never been able to get past children's songs to move on to other genres.

There's a reason it's easy to fall in love with deutsche Kinderlieder – Germany has been home to some of the most renowned composers, producers and performers in the world. It is the largest music market in Europe, and the third largest in the whole world.

German composers include some of the most accomplished and popular in history, among them Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert.

This lends a remarkable aura to a seemingly small thing like a children's song. These songs are a fine form of poetry, have deep philosophical meaning and nostalgic melodies that are impossible to find elsewhere.

Consider this line from a canon by 19th century composer August Mühling: Froh zu sein bedarf es wenig und wer froh ist, ist ein König! (It takes very little to be happy, and whoever is happy is a king!). Where else can one find such a pearl of wisdom in a song for children? Germany is the land where babies and young ones still fall asleep to Beethoven and Mozart.

Most of the current popular children's songs were written down during the 19th century. August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben alone is said to have penned more than 500 of them.

Some of his famous songs that every German child knows are Alle Vögel sind schon da (All the birds are already there), Ein Männlein steht im Walde (A man stands in the forest) and the Christmas song Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas is coming tomorrow).

Children in Germany have songs for every occasion and every reason you can possibly think of. They have songs for Easter, for Christmas, for baby Jesus, for New Year, for Nikolaus, for the weather, for birthdays, for animals and for fruit, just to name a few. If you dropped your hat, they probably have a song for that too.

What I admire most is how one can travel the length and breadth of the country and the children learn and sing the same Easter, St. Martin's or Nikolaus songs. These lyrics act like a thread that ties Germany together.

You might not realize it, but some famous English Christmas carols are actually translations of original German Weihnachtslieder (Christmas songs). 

The beautiful “Silent Night” was first the German Stille Nacht, neilige Nacht, written by Joseph Mohr, and set to music by Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818.

Similarly, “O Christmas Tree” is a direct translation of O Tannenbaum, which was originally a German folk song.

Interestingly, there are also German versions of many popular English kindergarten songs like “Wheels on the bus” and “If you’re happy and you know it”, as well as songs for entire fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel.

I can only say that learning about German culture is incomplete without learning about its rich musical heritage. Similarly, talking about music is incomplete without an honorable mention of German rhyme and rhythm.

But more than that, for anyone who loves music, German children’s songs are a must. At any rate, German Kinderlieder have found a permanent place in my heart. Neither my festivals, nor seasons, nor my day-to-day kindergarten life would be complete without them.

Ratna Srivastava blogs at The Sun in my Cup, and you can visit her Facebook page here.

For all The Local's guides to learning German CLICK HERE

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