Album number three from Timo Raisanen seems to be the charm. I first heard of him from Pelle Carlberg, not directly from the horse’s mouth. It was his duet with Ida Maria that lead me to Timo, after I Love You, You Imbecile, I found out she was working Raisanen. My first impression of his music was that it was somewhat over the top, but with Love Will Turn You Around he’s reigned in some of those tendencies and come up with a great record. He still belts it out and there are parts that you might want to turn down if you’re at a red light with the windows down, but the pop sensibilities win the day here. We need more pop like this, heart on the sleeve, flying in face of fashion, Emilio Estevez dancing around the library kind of rock.
mp3: Timo Raisanen – My Valentine
This brings me to Ida Maria, who I’ve gushed over before, but she’s actually releasing something you can buy. Oh My God is her first proper single, it will be out on her own label Nesna Records, which is named after her Norwegian hometown. On the demo version of it, Timo sang with her, but on this new version it’s all Ida. BBC 6 made it single of the week last week (rightly so!) and it will be out on 7″ and download 1 October. The 7″ is limited to 1000 copies all hand decorated by Ida herself, and is backed with All Going to Hell. So bust out your turntable and get ready for the single of the year. If you live in NYC (or will be there for CMJ, I’m truly jealous), you will have the opportunity to see her in person because she’ll be over for CMJ, playing 16 October.
mp3: Ida Maria – Oh My God (demo version)
Last but not least in this the Swedish trilogy is Park Hotell, who have no relation as far as I can tell to either Ida Maria or Timo Raisanen, except that they are all part of this blog post. They are a trio, and have a new two cd ep out on Glory Records called the Guest Who Stayed Forever. They remind me of the excellent Swedish band Neil Armstrong, making a racket that is both hyper and earnest and well worth the 15 minutes the ep takes to listen. Bjorn Yetling who seems to be everywhere these days, mixed one of the songs on the ep, though not the one below.
the finest kiss 
Talking of 6 Music, Ida Maria is a guest on Steve Lamacq’s show round about now! (You should be able to ‘listen again’ here if you miss(ed) it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/steve_lamacq/
Nice trio of tracks BTW!
Thanks. I was hoping Lamacq would asker her about Pelle Carlberg or Timo. She did allude to an album sometime next year.
She said on Friday that her album would be out in April.
thx for links;)