T A B L E__T A L K

Which music documentaries and concert films are worth watching? Select your favorites in the Music section of Table Talk

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R E C E N T L Y

Free Kitten
Sentimental Education
Kill Rock Stars
(01/06/98)

Les Paul
The Complete Trios Plus (1936-47)
Decca
(01/05/98)

Various Artists
Good Will Hunting Soundtrack
Capitol
(12/23/97)

Various Artists
Jackie Brown, Original Soundtrack
A Band Apart/Maverick
(12/22/97)

Fruitcake music
Andrei Codrescu
Valley of Christmas
Gert Town Records
(12/19/97)

BROWSE THE
MUSIC ARCHIVES

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V O W E L L

Sound Salvation
By Sarah Vowell
Survey says ...
Give the people what they want
(12/12/97)

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F E A T U R E

High notes
By Cynthia Joyce
Salon contributors answer the question: what was your most significant musical moment of 1997?
(12/24/97)

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CLOUDBERRY JAM . Providing the Atmosphere . NORTH OF NO SOUTH____
DAY BEHAVIOR . :Adored . NORTH OF NO SOUTH____
RAY WONDER . Good Music . NORTH OF NO SOUTH____

BY ALEX ABRAMOVICH | Wildly successful in other parts of the world, Swedish bands have never had much luck gaining a foothold on the slippery slopes of the American pop charts. But now that the new Swedish record company North of No South, or NoNS, is bracing itself for an all-out assault on our shores, it's a good time to ask why Sweden has long been such an anomaly in the global music market.

Long before David Bowie was selling stock in himself, Swedish supergroup ABBA was the second most profitable corporation traded on the Stockholm stock market. By far the most commercially successful group of the '70s, the group ruled the charts around the world -- everywhere except the U.S., where songs like "Dancing Queen" made American disco sound profound by comparison. Their songs hit hard and raced up the charts, but they slipped just as quickly and disappeared without a trace. It's a career trajectory followed by dozens of Swedish bands (remember Roxette? Ace of Base?). Why? Because while Swedish pop may be well-crafted, creative and endearingly hip (in that wacky I'm-Swedish-so-I-can-get-away-with-wearing-a-plastic-shirt kind of way), it also tends to be mind-numbingly dull.

Take the three albums NoNS has recently released in the U.S. to test out American waters before opening its Minneapolis office next summer. The first of these, Cloudberry Jam's "Providing the Atmosphere," is hypermelodic electronica -- imagine the members of Everything but the Girl taking speed in a cocktail lounge, or Chuck Mangione recruiting the Dust Brothers to produce his next album. Singer Jennie Medin wraps her blue-eyed Swedishness around plenty of "do do dos" and phrases like "what comes around goes around," while guitarists Henrik Sunqvist and Jörgen Warnström play pleasantly funky riffs. But bassist Per Valsinger and drummer Per Byström charge at full speed without infusing their playing with the least bit of passion.

The second record, Day Behavior's ":Adored" is a bit slower and moodier than "Providing the Atmosphere." The music is loose and languid, sensual without being overtly sexual, the rhythms and melodies more relaxed than Cloudberry Jam's -- all of which allows considerably more room for emotional nuance and expression, two things the band unfortunately seems unwilling to provide. Or unable, because when it comes to the lyrics, Day Behavior seem so amazed that they've figured out how to string English words together that they've forgotten to use the sentences to express thoughts. As a result, listening to a song like "Gullable" -- which may well be the first Scandinavian rap song to hit these shores since Urban Dance Squad's "Deeper Shade of Soul" -- is a weirdly mystifying experience. With lines like "I'm kinky in every sense of the world/traveling with the theater of the absurd," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band is lethal/I see Kafka-esque scenes of waking as a beetle," it's impossible to tell whether you're listening to a joke, a boast or merely an admission of vulnerability.

But for true mystification, go out and buy Ray Wonder's "Good Music." I'm still undecided as to whether "Good Music" is indeed good -- it may well be great. Or it could be horrible; normal categories simply don't apply. With its nonsensical lyrics and bouncy, catchy riffs that swerve in and out of faux Nirvana-isms at random, the Wonder boys (there are four of them) seem to be going for lounge music, but what they come up with is a weird mix of carnival music, Raffi and the "Love Boat" theme. Still, it's hard to listen to it without hopping up and down -- and silly lyrics like "you're a hugger mugger" don't make it any easier. It's music so silly that it can't possibly be stupid -- and it's enough to make you think the Swedes just might get it right the next time around.
SALON | Jan. 7, 1998