When it comes to Swedish pop music, you probably immediately
\nthink of ABBA, perhaps Ace of Base or the Cardigans. Those are all
\nsweet sounding bands, to be sure, but they only scratch the
\nsurface. This Perfect Day is a male pop-rock band that, in a really
\nperfect day, would be getting a lot more attention. Their latest
\nalbum, titled
\nC-60<\/i>, is a place where Beatlesque pop, glam, punk, and new
\nwave rock coexist peacefully.<\/p>\n
The first strains of synthesizers start the opening song, “Could
\nHave Been Friends”, and then the guitars kick in, and with the
\nhooky chorus, you’ll think it’s 1983 again. The next song, “Down On
\nMy Knees”, is more rhythmic and includes a horn part. I could see
\nthis being a hit, as it wouldn’t sound out of place on an INXS
\nalbum. But the tacky lyrics to “Dolphins” bring down
\nC-60<\/i> a bit, and the next song “Fishtank”, though a little
\nbetter, still has some of the bad taste of the previous song.<\/p>\n
However, just when I was about to give up on them, This Perfect
\nDay seemed to catch its second wind and come up with the best songs
\non the album. The punky “Young And Stupid” not only rocks but
\noffers an incisive lyric about aging. It is not every day that I
\nhear an incisive punk rock song. The slower “Hello” is awesome with
\nits moody guitar playing, and lyrics that include the following
\ngreat chorus: “Hello, don’t you understand?\/We’re boring as
\nhell\/But we can’t even tell anymore.”<\/p>\n
Other standout tracks include “Break My Arm”, a catchy pop song
\nwith a strange lyric: “Break my arm\/shoot me dead\/cut off my
\nhead\/can’t do me any harm\/just make me feel alive.” The rocker, “In
\nTwo Weeks You Will Be Forgotten”, is a nice sendup on the music
\nbusiness. I wonder if it is intentional that the melody is similar
\nto that old Twisted Sister song “We’re Not Going To Take It”.
\nIntentional or not, that similarity only helps to make the point
\nthe band is trying to make here.<\/p>\n
“Dreamers In A Dream” is an appealing pop song that continues to
\nshow off This Perfect Day’s cynicism. I find it interesting that
\neven their sunniest sounding songs are depressing. Here the singer
\nproclaims that we are just dreamers and we have no future at all.
\nBut C-60 ends with the ballad “Bryant Lake Bowler” which is a love
\nsong of cautious optimism. It is nice to hear them end the album
\nwith a ray of hope.<\/p>\n
This Perfect Day definitely shows another side to Swedish pop.
\nThey show a lot more depth than the Swedish bands we have heard in
\nthe States. Their sound is quite accessible, if not exactly what
\npop radio is looking for these days. Even though they come off a
\nbit retro at times, they add enough different influences to create
\na sound that is all their own. This Perfect Day will definitely
\nmake your day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":27312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7255],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38677","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-this-perfect-day","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38677"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}