Marit Bergman's latest single in her ongoing subscription series is a duet with Frida Hyvönen called "Travelling companion". Look for it to be made available to the general public on Monday.

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Midnight Choir - Will you carry me across the water?
02. TALK 1
03. Anna Maria Espinosa - Everyday
04. I Are Droid - Sevenfold
05. Paavoharju - Kevätrumpu
06. TALK 2
07. I'm From Barcelona - Music killed me
08. Marit Bergman - All that I ask of the morning
09. Ef - Thrills
10. TALK 3
11. Hello Saferide - Anna
12. Freddie Wadling - Running madly backwards
13. Tobias Hellkvist - Vintervarm
14. TALK 4
15. Scraps of Tape - Vibrancy
16. Oskar Schönning - Stoner
17. Elias and the Wizzkids - 24
18. TALK 5
19. Robert Svensson - Young enough (ft. Markus Krunegård)

Reminder: My show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday at the same time.

Kleerup
s/t
EMI

Pop music can be about a lot more than shifting hundreds of a thousands of records and continuously rotating overly-glitzy music videos, and Andreas Kleerup's self-titled debut is verification of this idea. Holding more in common with The Knife's songwriting approach than that of Max Martin, and reveling in similar production tricks to that of Justice, Kleerup's compositions seem almost "accidentally" radio friendly; too much effort has been put into these tracks for them to be dismissed as pop fluff, and yet too much pop sensibility has gone into their writing for the songs to feel pretentiously avant-garde -- the album's strengths exist somewhere in between these two judgments. While the record is rather star-studded with tracks featuring numerous well-known artists: Robyn, Lykke Li, Neneh Cherry, and Marit Bergman, to name a few, Kleerup's own tracks stand up well on their own. "Thank you for nothing" runs cleverly between Europop-like catchiness and the allure of well-produced remixes of bands like Phoenix, and opener "Hero" is an engaging first look at the album, evoking a strange mix between Vangelis and Röyksopp. "With every heartbeat", the Robyn-featured single, is my favorite track, though the Marit Bergman led "3am" and Lykke Li's "Until we bleed" are not far behind. Overall, "Kleerup" is a skillfully produced pop record that's as much fun as it is expertly written and executed -- a pleasant departure from the soulless gloss of so many other pop albums.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

The excellent video for Marit Bergman's new single "300 slow days in a row" (feat. Titiyo) is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBA3Jg_cWp8

Marit Bergman's new single "300 slow days in a row" featuring Titiyo is now available to her subscribers. I'd expect it to be streaming on myspace next week maybe with the (very entertaining) Cecilia Nordland (Monkeystrikes) directed video to follow.

Kleerup's next single will be "3am" which features Marit Bergman. Stream it at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/maritbergman

The Ark says they probably won't ever release another physical album again and are considering a single subscription service ala Marit Bergman: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesliv/musik/article2692222.ab (in Swedish)

Marit Bergman's latest single "Were you ever really mine" is now streaming on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/maritbergman

The new Marit Bergman single "Were you ever really mine?" is now available to subscribers and will be released to the general public on Monday. Marit also says that Karin Dreijer (The Knife) is working on a solo album which could be pretty darn cool, doncha think?

MP3: Kleerup - Until we bleed

I know a lot of folks are eager to kickstart the Kleerup backlash in earnest, so to them let me say this: sorry, but his new album really isn't all that bad. For one, he's got a lot of starpower in his favor; Robyn, Marit Bergman, Lykke Li (today's mp3), Titiyo, Lisa Milberg (The Concretes) and Neneh Cherry all lend their voices to tracks. On the other hand, those tracks are the only standouts as Kleerup's instrumentals are unanimously forgettable. So when I say that the album isn't all that bad, it really isn't all that great either. "Until we bleed" is sublime, smoky and sad-sack, easily the album highlight. I'm not even that much of a Lykke Li fan, but her fragile delivery here suits the dark, bubbly sound to a tee. It's all about vibe and the string samples in the refrain accentuate her vulnerability, giving the track a subdued but seductive coating. Compared to "With every heartbeat" (ft. Robyn), my pick for the 2nd best track (and one I assume everyone's already heard more than enough times by now), it's far less immediate, but far more rewarding overall. The formula is almost exactly the same almost to the point of self-plagiarization, except that Robyn can't help but make everything she sings into an anthem. When Kleerup attempts to do the same with Marit Bergman and Titiyo, the results are decent enough, but nowhere near as exciting. It's not the vocalists' fault - they do their job adequately enough, the tracks just don't accentuate their strengths. In a word: tepid. Not hot, not cold, not even worth discussing. Grab this one and blast it, forget the rest.

Kleerup - Until we bleed (ft. Lykke Li)

Here's the playlist for this past weekend's radio show:

01. Pluxus - Bootstrap
02. TALK 1
03. Marit Bergman - Straight into my lovers arms
04. Grande Roses - Dead town
05. Mikko Singh - Rauha
06. TALK 2
07. Namur - Draw us near
08. Lapko - Sawyer the brother
09. Paper - To her
10. TALK 3
11. Johnossi - Train song
12. Markus Krunegård - Rocken spelar ingen roll längre
13. Printer - You need to
14. TALK 4
15. Firefox AK - Once I was like you (Boeoes Kaelstigen remix)
16. Aerial - Time is on fire
17. Sahara Hotnights - Visit to Vienna
18. TALK 5
19. Siena Root - Time will tell
20. Kristofer Åström - I collect knives
21. Anna Ternheim - Better be
22. TALK 6
23. Anna Leong - Guollotine
24. Folie - Krogg
25. Hearts of Black Science - Empty city lights
26. TALK 7
27. Inuit - En förlorad generation
28. The Psyke Project - Dark halls red floors
29. Memento Mori - Epilog
30. TALK 8
31. The Bear Quartet - Lights out, sound off
32. Fun - I know Ted Kennedy
33. Johan Heltne - Hjärta. Instinkt. Principer.
34. TALK 9
35. Lama - Bussi
36. Niccokick - Love & neon lights
37. Little Jimmy Reeves - Drowsy dogs
38. C.Aarmé - Visions
39. TALK 10
40. No Privacy - Blood over Denmark

Reminder: my show on Sirius Blog Radio runs Saturdays at 12 noon and midnight ET on channel 26 (Left of Center).

Marit Bergman's nice new single "Straight into my lovers arms" is now streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/maritbergman
Subscribers can download the track from the lounge section of her website or you can also purchase it from iTunes, et al. Also, let it be known that new Marit Bergman subscribers joining up this month are eligible to win a drawing for a new Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone, pre-filled with Marit's music.

There's now a video for the acoustic version of the new Marit Bergman single "Out on the piers": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-x_OMRcNTM
Subscribers to her single series can download a hi-res version in her site's lounge area.

Besides Titiyo and Robyn, Kleerup's upcoming debut album will also feature guest spots from Lykke Li, Lisa Millberg (The Concretes), Neneh Cherry and Marit Bergman.

Marit Bergman's video for her latest single "Out on the piers" is now online: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=31249918