I need a hazy, distant place I can escape to today. Some days I’m happy to confront this ‘thing’ the world is facing head on, but not today, so expect a deluge of short features about artists that help my plan to escape the realities of the world.
Dreamy Swedish songwriter TOVE is a pretty good place to start, and what’s great is that I know nothing about her, no press releases, nothing to fuzz the mind, no hype to worry about. Instinctively she seems like the type of young musician as likely to be found sitting contentedly at the back of a sunny festival field drinking beer with friends as she is playing on stage, a true indie kid who just loves music. Of course, I really shouldn’t make stuff up like this, maybe she hates festivals, can’t stand the chemical lavatories and only drinks champagne… but let’s just go with my original image for now.
What I do know about TOVE is that her debut EP ‘Made up Gold’ was released just 2 weeks ago, and there’s recently been a lovely buzz online about her, with features in some respected music blogs (erm… and now this one), and reaching the top of the SubmitHub rock charts, which I grant means very little to most of you, but is a pretty good indicator of cool new indie music.
‘Made Up Gold’ has 4 tracks, opening with ‘Gin & Lemonade’, and there is a natural dreamy fluidity about her music, which positively demands you switch off from the rest of the world and just get lost in her words - psychedelic folk / rock influenced musings for late nights, or days like today when the Corporate world can, quite frankly, go screw itself. To my shame I missed out on ‘1,000,000<1’ when it came out last year, it is probably easier to get to like on 1st listen, with more conventional lyrics – ‘‘I will follow you anywhere / in a heartbeat I will be there’’ and a more coherent, less dreamy, melodic style too.
But the highlight is undoubtedly ‘Daisies Bloom’, apparently a song written about being ‘’stuck in the same place mentally for years after a trauma’’, and cleverly written in a waltz ¾ time, which gives the track a floating buoyancy, with TOVE’s vocals just a delight, and the track building to a huge psychedelic guitar driven climax. The EP ends with ‘Rather Be Home / Runaway’, which is a cute intricate song, I love the acoustic guitar opening in particular.
Not everyone will like this, it will be just too waywardly dreamy for some, so if you’re unsure maybe it’s best to go straight to the most accessible track ‘Daisies Bloom’, because you do need your head to be in the right space to enjoy TOVE’s music - or if not in the right space, just up in the clouds somewhere.
Forget what’s happening in the world, ‘Made Up Gold’ is perfect for today at least.