I couldn't help but compare Swedish-born, Berlin-based indie synthpop artist Molly Nilsson's "1995" with Bowling for Soup's popular reinterpretation of "1985". Both tracks are laced with nostalgia about a bygone era, although the latter is mainly obsessed with the pop culture icons of the 1980s and the hedonistic possibilities of rock and roll culture.
Nilsson's track (which is from her sixth album, Zenith (2015)) is more inward looking and personal, and, like her fourth album (2012), partly concerned about the relationship between humans and technology:
'Windows 95, is only a metaphor for what I feel inside Although I'm older now, there's still an emptiness that's never letting go somehow'
Lyrics: Dark Skies Association Youtube Channel
With her characteristic deadpan vocals and melancholic synth production, Nilsson's thoughtfully recalls how momentous the inventions of the personal desktop and internet were: '1995/ They call the year the future was to arrive/ But back in '95/ We thought we were standing on the threshold/ To the end of time'. She acknowledges that great leaps in technology have been achieved (I suppose the world is so much smaller now) but nevertheless wishes to be transported back in time, to a moment when all that potential was yet to be fulfilled. The pace of technological innovation may have increased since 1995, but the chances of another paradigm-shifting change happening soon seem slight.
Nilsson's DIY, vintage-sounding production certainly works well with this theme of instrospective nostalgia. As AllMusic's Tim Sendra observes, listening to her intelligent-but-morose synthpop is its own reward: "Hearing her detached, yet oddly affecting, deadpan vocals floating among the perfectly placed synths is something that never gets old; digging deep into the lyrics is rewarding for connoisseurs of deep melancholy".
