It has been decades since Sweden has earned the trust of music fans worldwide to come up with something special (and yes, that does include ABBA, whatever you might think about them. So it is no surprise that a Swedish artist’s name you barely heard of (or in my case, have not heard of at all) comes up with some worthwhile music. Marcus Norbert and his album Heal The World are definitely in that category.
Norberg started out with a small town band YAST (an acronym that translates into Youth and Student Travel), that eventually did travel - to Malmo. They did come up with a self-titled album that is hailed by those that heard it as a worthy equivalent of what Tame Impala are currently doing. Quite a heady praise. Haven’t had a chance to hear it myself, but after Heal The World, I’ll definitely seek it out. This solo outing with a band dubbed Disappointments is yet a slightly different affair, but personally a joy to the ears.
The introductory The Moonlight comes off as a great cross between The Weather Prophets and The Go-Betweens, Norbert having a voice that sounds like a deeper version of the Prophets’ Peter Astor. Take It To The Grave introduces the great backing voice of Matilda Berggen, fuzzy guitar and you get the notion why Norberg’s YAST band is compared to Tame Impala. After all his bandmates are on this album too, along with some other Malmo prominent musicians. The World We Live In continues The Weather Prophets/Go-Betweens vibe adapted to the current times, Norberg’s close to baritone voice and some great chord changes and guitar work dominating.
The mentioned Brittish/Australian band axis always had a great songwriting and lyrical connections to the Seventies and so does Norberg. Hey Ho! Let’s Die! One of the strongest tracks here (it’s hard to pick one though) just confirms the tongue-in-cheek approach Norbert obviously had with the whole project, from the band name to the lyrics throughout:
"I woke up the other morning / I had a funny feeling growing / pictured you with some shitty ass-face / my dreams can sometimes get me twisted”.
Norbert might have named his backing crew here The Disappointments, but along with him, they are far from it. Definitely the on to watch.
