Who is Sigrid? Exploring the Underrated Music of a Young Norwegian Artist

[DennisN]

A live version of "Nirvana", which is the opening track on their album "Love" (1985) and it has nothing to do with the later famous grunge band Nirvana:



I've seen The Cult live once in the 90s, and they were great.

 

[Spinnor]

More fine guitar playing and vocals,

 

[DennisN]

Here are two songs by the criminally underrated UK alternative rock band The House of Love, both from their excellent album Babe Rainbow (1992).

Crush Me


Philly Phile

 

[DennisN]

More fine guitar playing and vocals,

I can actually play a couple of their songs on guitar, and when I was in a band we once played a cover of "She Sells Sanctuary" live, where I played the lead guitar. It's not so difficult, actually, I can still play it. And it's still a darn good riff.

She Sells Sanctuary
And here is a fun clip I found some time ago, where Billy Duffy describes how he came up with the intro to the song. It was a random thing that happened when he joked around trying to imitate Jimmy Paige .

The Cult's Billy Duffy on his History with Gretsch

 

[Spinnor]

Moving slow after lunch today and these get the blood flowing,

 

[DennisN]

Synthesizer eargasm... (ambient/electronic).
I heard it today on internet radio, a very nice instrumental track.

Stimulus Timbre - Harmonic Discovery - 07 Space Station 84

 

[DennisN]

Nice electronic music performed with the incredibly cool laser harp. And if you are a fan of Jean-Michel Jarre you might appreciate both the style of music, the beautiful instruments used and the laser harp.

Madis - Carrying The Fire (Laser Harp Live Performance)

 

[DennisN]

I've posted about her before, and, gosh, she's got such a good live voice:

Billie Eilish - (Live) Ocean Eyes

 

[dLouie]

I recently helped a buddy installing the brake kit and helo rims on his truck project and took it for a spin. Turned on the radio and this music play. I have not heard it in a long time and feels great to listen to it by surprise. One of my most fave back in the school days.

 

[Spinnor]

 

[david2]

 

[Spinnor]

 

[david2]

 

[Spinnor]

 

[WWGD]

I am not that much into Coldplay, but this one seemed really good:



Unrelated, another contemporary song that I thought was pretty good:

 

[Spinnor]

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are

I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh, let's go back to the start

Running in circles
Coming up tails
Heads on a science apart

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard

Oh, take me back to the start

I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart

Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart

Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh, and I rush to the start

Running in circles
Chasing our tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh, it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard

I'm going back to the start

 

[Spinnor]

I love the way you look at me
I feel the pain you place inside
You lock me up inside your dirty cage
Well I'm alone inside my mind

I'd like to teach you all the rules
I'd get to see them set in stone
I like it when you chain me to the bed
But then your secrets never shone

I need to feel you, you need to feel me
I can't control you, you're not the one for me, no

I can't control you, you can't control me
I need to feel you, so why's there even you and me?

I love the way you rake my skin
I feel the hate you place inside
I need to get your voice out of my head
Cause I'm that guy you'll never find

I think you know all of the rules
There's no expressions on your face
I'm hope that some day you will let me go
Release me from my dirty cage

I need to feel you, you need to feel me
I can't control you, you're not the one for me, no

I can't control you, you can't control me
I need to feel you, so why's there even you and me?

I love the way you look at me
I love the way you smack my ass
I love the dirty things you do
I have control of you

I love the way you look at me
I love the way you smack my ass
I love the dirty things you do
I have control of you

I love the way you look at me
I love the way you smack my ass
I love the dirty things you do
I have control of you

I love the way you look at me
I love the way you smack my ass
I love the dirty things you do
I have control of you

I need to feel you, you need to feel me
I can't control you, you're not the one for me, no

I can't control you, you can't control me
I need to feel you, so why's there even you and me?

You're not the one for me, no
You're not the one for me, no
You're not the one for me, no
You're not the one for me, no

 

[WWGD]

A classic:

 

[Spinnor]

 

[BWV]

 

[BillTre]

For Thanksgiving Day:

 

[DennisN]

I still love this song so much... and it is an awesome, intimate live performance.
She sings her heart out .

 

[DennisN]

I am not that much into Coldplay, but this one seemed really good:

I love the way you look at me

I like Coldplay, they've done some great songs. Here are three of my favorites, Speed of Sound ,God Put A Smile On Your Face and Talk:

Coldplay - Speed Of Sound (Official Video)


and a live version of it:

Coldplay - Speed Of Sound (Live From Austin City)


Coldplay - God Put A Smile Upon Your Face


And "Talk", with a vintage science fiction feel in the video:

Coldplay - Talk


Edit: By the way, Chris Martin, the singer in Coldplay is a very funny and charming guy, I've seen quite many interviews with him. And I posted a hilarious sketch Coldplay did in collaboration with Game of Thrones regarding doing a musical of the tv series. Here's the post.

 

[DennisN]

If I had top 10 songs list (which I don't), this one would most likely be on it:
(the audio is actually mastered by me, the video quality is regretfully not the best, but I haven't found any better source video yet)

David Bowie - Life On Mars? (Live, mastered)

 

[DennisN]

This is another song (instrumental) that I have loved ever since it was released in 1998.
This is an awesome live version which gets funky and eventually quite rocky even though it's electronica/downtempo. Also audio mastered by me (today actually) and the video is great quality (HD).

Air - La Femme d'Argent (Live at Canal+ 2016, HD, remastered)

 

[DennisN]

I am actually not very fond of much Swedish music, I am much more into UK and US music.
Musically I feel like I should have been born in UK , there are VERY many UK bands and artists that I like a lot.

Though we have some great artists in Sweden like ABBA of course, Robyn, Kent, Lisa Miskovsky and Veronica Maggio. I don't know if Veronica Maggio is well known outside Scandinavia, but if she isn't, she should be. She is a great composer, singer and performer.

Here is a Swedish pop song I like very much, by Petra Marklund. I like both the alluringly simple lyrics and the composition, which have great hooks and a very good chorus. The verse is a bit sad, thoughtful and cynical, but then the chorus comes in and cleans the sadness away with daredevil happiness, basically saying that this night we can forget the past and live in the moment instead.

The song also has a strange feeling to it, sounding both old fashioned and modern at the same time. I like that a lot. Here is a video of it with both Swedish and English lyrics shown side by side:

Petra Marklund - Händerna mot himlen (Eng: Hands to the sky)

 

[WWGD]

I am actually not very fond of much Swedish music, I am much more into UK and US music.
Musically I feel like I should have been born in UK , there are VERY many UK bands and artists that I like a lot.

Though we have some great artists in Sweden like ABBA of course, Robyn, Kent and Veronica Maggio. I don't know if Veronica Maggio is well known outside Scandinavia, but if she isn't, she should be. She is a great composer, singer and performer.

Here is a Swedish pop song I like very much, by Petra Marklund. I like both the alluringly simple lyrics and the composition, which have great hooks and a very good chorus. The song also has a strange feeling to it, sounding both old fashioned and modern at the same time. I like that a lot.
Here is a video of it with both Swedish and English lyrics shown side by side:

Petra Marklund - Händerna mot himlen (Eng: Hands to the sky)

All other things being equal, UK has around 70 million people to Sweden's 10, so you'd expect to get 7x better bands from the UK . In the US the ratio is around 32x. Would be nice to see if ratio holds.

 

[DennisN]

All other things being equal, UK has around 70 million people to Sweden's 10, so you'd expect to get 7x better bands from the UK . In the US the ratio is around 32x.

True. But I think my personal ratio differs significantly from the expected ratio .

I just did a check on my facebook page for fun and counted the music artists I've listed as favorites.
This was the result:

UK: 17
(The Beatles, Rolling Stones, ELO, Dire Straits, The Cult, Radiohead, Portishead, Nothing But Thieves, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, The House of Love, The Verve, Zero 7, Massive Attack, Coldplay, Muse)

Ireland: 1 (U2)

US: 14
(Iggy Pop, Khruangbin, Cigarettes After Sex, Beach House, Monster Magnet, Guns N' Roses , Infected Mushroom, Börns, R.E.M., Billie Eilish, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho, Queens of the Stone Age, Pixies)

Sweden: 3 (it fits with your calculation*) (Cult of Luna, Eggstone, Vibrasphere)
France: 2 (Air, Jean Michel Jarre)
Norway: 2 (Amethystium, Sigrid)
Canada: 1 (Grimes)
Germany: 1 (Booka Shade)
Greece: 1 (Keep Shelly In Athens)
Australia: 1 (AC/DC)
Netherlands: 1 (Easily Embarrassed)

* It fits approximately with your ratio calculation of 7x for UK, since 3x7 = 21, and I counted 17 artists from the UK. Though what I have listed on facebook is far from all artists I like, I have a HUGE music library, quite dominated by the UK and US .

 

[WWGD]

True. But I think my personal ratio differs significantly from the expected ratio .

I just did a check on my facebook page for fun and counted the music artists I've listed as favorites.
This was the result:

UK: 17
(The Beatles, Rolling Stones, ELO, Dire Straits, The Cult, Radiohead, Portishead, Nothing But Thieves, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, The House of Love, The Verve, Zero 7, Massive Attack, Coldplay, Muse)

Ireland: 1 (U2)

US: 14
(Iggy Pop, Khruangbin, Cigarettes After Sex, Beach House, Monster Magnet, Guns N' Roses , Infected Mushroom, Börns, R.E.M., Billie Eilish, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho, Queens of the Stone Age, Pixies)

Sweden: 3 (it fits with your calculation*) (Cult of Luna, Eggstone, Vibrasphere)
France: 2 (Air, Jean Michel Jarre)
Norway: 2 (Amethystium, Sigrid)
Canada: 1 (Grimes)
Germany: 1 (Booka Shade)
Greece: 1 (Keep Shelly In Athens)
Australia: 1 (AC/DC)
Netherlands: 1 (Easily Embarrassed)

* It fits approximately with your ratio calculation of 7x for UK, since 3x7 = 21, and I counted 17 artists from the UK. Though what I have listed on facebook is far from all artists I like, I have a HUGE music library, quite dominated by the UK and US .

It would be interesting to figure out the factors. It may be too that English-speaking bands have an additional advantage bevause there are way more speakers worldwide. But I suspect that Rock music is more intrinsically part of Anglo culture than others, but that is just a (slightly)-educated guess.

 

[DennisN]

I am actually not very fond of much Swedish music

Though we have some great artists in Sweden like ... Kent,

Here is another Swedish song, "999" that I wanted to share with you... if you are not from Scandinavia it is very likely you have never heard it (and never will, unless you click it below in this post ).

It is in my opinion one of the best songs composed in Scandinavia ever, by the Swedish alternative rock band Kent. They sing in Swedish, but they tried to do some English versions of some songs, but they did not break through internationally.

This song is called "999" and it is musically a great composition, but what really makes this song great is the very thoughtful, deep and introspective lyrics;

It is about so many relatable things. It is about growing up and seeing that all the things you remember from the past has now disappeared and are only in your memory. And it is also about not being quite true to yourself; that there are some things you now realize you have done, which you once promised yourself to never do. The words in the chorus are simple, but say so much:

(my translation to English)

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I've done

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I already have done

Here is a video with the entire great lyrics, with Swedish and English lyrics side by side:
(don't miss this one if you are interested in deep, introspective lyrics )

999 - Kent (Swedish & English lyrics)
And here is an awesome live studio version:

Kent - 999 (liveversion)
If this song was ever recorded in English, I think it would have a great potential for success.
At least in the UK. Maybe in the US too, I don't know.
It is one of my absolute all time favorite songs from Scandinavia.

Cheers!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: I found an entire translation of the lyrics to English here.

English lyrics: (I modified it into better English)

All my life I have heard a song
A lullaby you once sang
All my life I have relied on myself
But now I need your help
All my life I have heard a song
A song my mother once sang
All my life I have tried to think for myself
But I won't get any further without your help

All my thoughts are revolving around sick things

Those dreams we dreamt came from bordering countries past the barbed wire
Where the trenches were dug when someone else built the country while we slept
Now we are awake but we don't recognize ourselves
They have torn up our streets, burnt down the playgrounds
Where we hung out as kids
How ever far you have come
There is always longer to go

There was a light that never burned out
In the songs from my childhood
For my whole life I have relied on my luck
But I can never wriggle myself out of this

And all of our ideals come from a pink Eighties

Now we are thinking of travels, White Nights, Ian Curtis
Are you Michael Jackson? Or Michael Bolton?
Are you Pepsi? Do you have Coke?
Are you lonely in your nakedness, your bruises and calluses
You have goosebumps because you are freezing
Is this the best that life have to give?
How ever far you have come
There is always longer to go

All my thoughts are revolving around expensive things

Oh baby where have you been
We have already lit the grill
We have waited here in the rain for something that is not happening
And never will happen
It is just a vague feeling
That something has been lost
That we wasted our best times on envy
This is as far as we have come

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I've done

The 999 things I said I would never do
Are balanced by the 999 worse things I already have done

 

[DennisN]

Sweden: 3 (it fits with your calculation*) (Cult of Luna, Eggstone, Vibrasphere)

And here is another recent song released by the Swedish band Eggstone. I actually know them. When I was in a band once, we recorded a demo in their studio Tambourine Studios. This song is a great composition with very relatable lyrics in English.

Eggstone - The Late:
And here's another good Swedish band, The Cardigans, which I actually have shared rehearsing studio with once a long time ago. I remember that the bassist in the group was a huge fan of The Verve, just like me. This is a video with The Cardigans, heavily influenced by the first Star Wars movie :

The Cardigans - Erase & Rewind:

 

[Spinnor]

 

[DennisN]

The Cardigans did some great songs, here's an early one:

And this one "You're The Storm" is probably my favorite with them, I like the chorus very much:

 

[DennisN]

I audio mastered and uploaded this classic song today, it was a pure joy to do .
He was an awesome performer...

Jimi Hendrix - Johnny B. Goode (Live, remastered)

 

[Spinnor]

Live version,



The studio version,



Pretty sharp lead guitar in the studio version.