Record of the Week

   Spotify Premium is my constant companion - along with three cats – when I’m writing. Or cooking. Or ironing. I’d be lost without it. I have hundreds of CDs and an equal amount of LPs but making playlists on Spotify is so easy, so ordered. I have several lists on the go, with self-explanatory titles; Inspiration, Boost, Head Space, Elvis, Elvis 2 (you guessed it -I like Elvis), Soul Faves, Eurovision Faves (yes, it’s a thing). And then there are my character play lists for the books I’m working on; they help to define the characters and keep me ‘in the zone’ as it were. And of course, with Spotify being a Swedish company, I have access to dozens of old songs long since forgotten, and sung in Swedish. A real blast from childhood.

Swedish equivalent of Top of the Pops LPs

   
   It goes without saying that ABBA dominated the charts in the 70’s in Sweden, and many of their most popular songs were also recorded in Swedish. Listening to them now after so many years of knowing the songs in English, I have to say they don’t work as well in their native language. Having said that, Agnetha Fältskog singing Tack för en underbar, vanlig dag wouldn’t be the same in any other language but Swedish.

   Harpo was another Swedish artist who got plenty of airtime both on radio and television in Sweden, and his hit Movie Star was a favourite at our youth club discos, as well as the Dutch band, George Baker Selection, and their hit Paloma Blanca. Harpo graced my bedroom wall alongside David Essex, Donny Osmond, and Robert Redford. I thought Harpo was the height of cool in his white flares and always bare-footed. Naturally, I too had the white flares and I too wandered the streets in bare feet – until I cut my foot open on a piece of glass. That’s when I realised music videos and real life were not the same thing; I also realised that blood does not wash out of white denim.

   Oldies aside, I love all kinds of music. I have my favourites: Michael Bublé,  Bryan Adams, Paolo Nutini, Stereophonics, and Twenty One Pilots all feature heavily across my lists. Spotify throws up suggestions according to my music choices and I sometimes come across a real gem. Imelda May is one such happy find. A singer songwriter from Dublin, she’s been around for a few years but it was her latest album Life, Love, Flesh, Blood that caught my eye – or should that be ear? Anyway two songs from it, Sixth Sense and Should’ve Been You, quickly found their way on to my list and her album is in my library. Take a listen: I bet you’ll love her as much as I do.

 

 


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