Feelin' is believin'

It doesn't feel right to be posting about this particular artist so soon after bemoaning Andreas's Melodifestivalen placing (please release an album anyhow!), but at least I didn't write this yesterday, which I very nearly did. Magnus Carlsson, former Barbados and Alcazar member, will be competing in the third semifinal of Melodifestivalen, putting him up against people like Nanne, Sebastian, and the Attic and Therese. He's released three solo albums so far, two holiday albums and one regular one, and is working on his next one. I imagine he's hoping to be able to ride some Melodifestivalen success, because you can already preorder the song he'll be singing, "Live Forever," as a single. Today's song isn't particularly new or rare, but I'm hoping not too many people will have it; it's a demo he made in 2005 when he was planning his debut non-holiday album.

Rock Me In - Rock Me Out--avoiding any lyrical analysis (though it's worth noting that the lyrics are in English, something which is true for only a minority of Magnus's solo songs), "Rock Me In - Rock Me Out" is a mid-tempo, somewhat boppy song with a minimal but pointed use of strings or string-like sound effects right before and during the chorus. It's less joyous than "Lev Livet" and accordingly has a less poppy sound, while still being thoroughly pop, if that makes any sense. It's also got some nice "ah-hah"'s, though I'm not sure about the "ooo-ooo"'s and "mmm"'s that open and close the song.

Why not do one more demo? This one, though, is from his time with Barbados, and so sounds different from most of his solo work.

Destiny's Made--I don't know all the details of the dansband genre, but this has that sort-of-boy-band-but-not-really sound that "Bye Bye" (from the Mathias Holmgren era), which I posted earlier, also has (as opposed to, say, "Kom Hem," which is also good). It's really catchy and energetic. As far as Barbados demos go, "Långt Bort Men Nära" is probably better (more dancey, and more in the "Kom Hem" vein than the "Bye Bye" one, though it's more energetic than "Kom Hem"), but I thought we'd stick with English for today. However, if you prefer your songs in Swedish, seek out the released version of this song, "Ditt öde," which is in Swedish.

I don't think either of these songs is available in a purchasable format anywhere, but you can buy Magnus Carlsson's album Magnus Carlsson here (physical).

Next up: someone from Sweden, but with no Melodifestivalen connections that I know of (though he was on a televised competition), but after that, hopefully an artist not from Sweden.