I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I've been listening to Nina & Kim's fantastic album En Annan Tid a lot this week--and it really is fantastic. It really should be one of the first albums I name when someone asks for some Swedish music recommendations. Nina & Kim started out as part of the Swedish group Friends, who you might remember from their fifth place finish at the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest with "Listen To Your Heartbeat." Eventually (and after their fantastic 2002 Melodifestivalen entry, "The One That You Need"), Friends split up, but two members, Nina and Kim, continued on as a duo. They couldn't stay away from Melodifestivalen either, though (unjustifiably) they experienced a lot less success--the uber-camp (I've used that word a lot these past few days, haven't I?) but also great "En gång för alla" and its sailor-themed performance only took seventh in its semifinal of eight in 2004; as two YouTube viewers point out, it's kind of like a mix of "Go West" and "In The Navy," with a big heaping of schlager on top. They did have some successful singles, though, enough so that they got to release said album--and thank goodness they did, because it's pretty much a consistent delight throughout, on both the more schager and more typical pop numbers. Sadly, they broke up back in December 2006.I know both You Don't Know Pop and Catchy Tunes of Sweden (and Poplicious just wrote about them in combination with a Friends post) featured them, so the song I'm posting today is in part chosen not to overlap with either of those posts. However, if you at all think you'd like them, you absolutely must hear "Bortom tid och rum" (or its English version, "Universe Of Love"), "Hallå Hela Pressen," and "Säg Det Nu"--they're a lot more schlager/disco/dance than this song is going to make you think.
Om Du Stannar Hos Mig--yes, I may have just thrown in a disclaimer that other songs are more disco or dance-influenced, but the running revving beat throughout this definitely comes from that sort of song as well; it's just that something makes it seem just a little more grounded in "regular" pop to me than some of the aforementioned songs. Whatever--it's a fun grown-up pop track that loses none of the fun that you usually expect with the phrase "grown-up," and definitely sounds straight out of Sweden.
To buy Nina & Kim's album En Annan Tid, go here (physical) or here (digital).
Next up: well...probably something Melodifestivalen related.
3 comments:
I tried to download these two hookers, but my computer froze. Hopefully they rock on without me!
mine froze too! DAmn those cheeky broads! Still i am excited enough about them. I shall try on my work computer. It doesn't matter if that freezes. hahahahaha.
I only recently found out that Friends did a cover of Kisses of Fire which i still think deserves a more electro pop update (think A Teens One Night In Bangkok) but their version was nice enough...
More melodifestivalen :) Bring it!
Oh no! Well, I imagine neither of you is that interested in them, but if you are and can't get it to work, I can e-mail you. Definitely let me know if you have troubles with ZShare here in the future, though; if it's a frequent problem, I'll have to find a different site to use.
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