Closer isn't close enough

"Wanna Feel Real," the presumptive eventual debut single from Sweden's The Provider (Sebastian Larsson), who has connections to frequent Danny collaborator Oscar Görres, isn't a song I imagine as a radio hit in Sweden, as cute, poppy, and commercial as the electronic beats that provide its musical backing are--the song's just a little too willing to be stop-start with its music for me to envision that happening. More to the point, "Wanna Feel Real" is likely to be seen as too "in the middle," with music that in its playful commercial joy and catchiness is like pure pop but in its willingness to avoid a straightforward pop vocal part is a little more like the credible electro-pop that makes up part of Sweden's "underground." If the beats were just a little less shiny, the singer's voice more deliberately odd, perhaps then the song would fall easily into the category of "cool" and people would know what to do with it.

To say that the singer avoids putting on odd vocal mannerisms or sounding twee (and in that way goes for a welcome commercial sound), though, isn't really to get across what the vocals of "Wanna Feel Real" are like: for much of the song, and particularly so in the beginning, they've been processed, made to sound more robotic in a way that gives added meaning to the "Wanna feel real" line that gives the song its title, and yet despite that processing, there's something about them that remains very recognizably human--just buffed to a shine to match the rest of the music.

My (hopefully unnecessary) pessimism about radio play, though, is outshone by my love of this song, electronic music unafraid to completely embrace pop music without any restrictions. Maybe my love is no surprise--anything poppy with elements of cute has a good chance of winning me over (though I think, when done successfully, daring to do cute is quite brave in today's musical environment, but that's a post for another day)--but there's still something so happy, so bouncy, so "good things can come in small packages" (which often contain more than meets the eye--there's something kind of computerized Pinocchio about this song, albeit presumably as a metaphor), so celebratory about life about this song--despite a middle eight that's a little bit of a step back--that I'm hoping it'll win over at least a few other people too.

There's nowhere to buy this single (posted for a short time), but you can visit The Provider's MySpace instead.

Next up: maybe that Italian song or that boy band song or another Swedish song.