Episode 4 - Autumn
This episode takes place in early September. Linda is eight months pregnant and Geoff and she are looking for a house to move into; something which sparks panic in Geoff as he fears being tied down to a ‘lagom’ lifestyle. Lagom, as you will know from the episode or from the video that Adam and I made for the BBC website, is a uniquely Swedish word roughly translating as ‘adequate’ or ‘sufficient’. Linda’s Dad, Sten, sees it as being synonymous with Swedish ideas of fairness in society; Geoff sees it as the ominous threat of conformity and acceptance of a middle of the road lifestyle. Swedish singer-songwriter Peps Persson tackles the subject in his song ‘Alldeles Lagom’, which translates as ‘Just Lagom’. “Not too slow, not too fast, not too small and not too big” he sings, which pretty much sums it up. Lagom is not ‘too’ anything. Peps has been going since the early Seventies; he’s a hugely respected artist and, by Swedish standards, unusually counter-culture and politicised.
Several of the bands in this episode have featured in previous weeks, primarily because I really like them. The Cardigans kick us off in grand style here with one of the longest (and best) song titles I’ve ever come across – “I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer”. I think we’ve all been there... Azure Blue and NONONO both featured in Episode 3. They are two of my favourite bands from the current crop of young Swedish Indie acts. Azure Blue’s ‘Chesil Beach’, named after the Ian McEwan novella, has a haunting repetition of the word ‘sorry’ which felt like it perfectly captured Geoff’s mindframe at a certain point in this episode.
Geoff’s anti-lagom rebellion is kicked off by Robyn and Röyksopp’s track ‘None of Dem’ which contains the line “I’m so bored in this town, take me away from here.”
Stockholmer Robyn is the sort of artist I feel I want to describe as a ‘songstress’. There is something slightly magical about her elfin punky persona and her brand of incredibly catchy yet eccentric dance pop. She’s had some big hits internationally, you may know her ‘Dancing on My Own’ or ‘With Every Heartbeat’, which was a Number 1 in the UK. ‘None of Dem’ is a collaboration with Norwegian electronic duo Röyksopp and comes from her album Body Talk Pt.1.
Geoff’s response to Linda’s perceived efforts to get him to settle down is to throw the most un-lagom party he can think of, embodied musically by The Beastie Boys’ ‘(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)’ and Pink’s ‘Get The Party Started’. Of course neither of these artists are Swedish, indeed it could be said they are spectacularly un-Swedish. Incidentally, I once came second in the UK Air Guitar Championship Final with an air guitar rendition of Fight For Your Right; one of my finest achievements, though I really should have won.
Say Lou Lou provide the soundtrack to Geoff’s repentant hungover walk into the forest. They’re a lovely band; a half Australian/half Swedish twin sister duo. I saw them live in a small venue in East London at an event promoting Swedish music in 2013 and became quite obsessed with the few songs they had released at that point. Since then their profile and their repertoire has grown. I urge you to listen to them.
I was about to proudly boast that every episode of The Cold Swedish Winter has had an honorary ABBA track, then I realised that we failed to put one into Episode 2. Oh well... it feels entirely fitting that the last track of the series is one from Sweden’s biggest selling artists; Scandinavia’s very own ‘Fab Four’. Mamma Mia is, of course, a nod to the fact that the event we have been expecting all series has finally come to pass; Linda has given birth. Geoff is about to experience the highs and lows of Swedish parenthood.
The Cold Swedish Winter – Jens Lekman
I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer – The Cardigans
Alldeles Lagom – Peps Blodsband
None Of Dem – Robyn And Royksopp
(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) – Beastie Boys
