Sologne

The last Loney, Dear album before the one-man D.I.Y. Swedish indie-folk project was signed to Sub Pop Records in late 2006, Sologne isn't notably different from Emil Svanängen's earlier homemade records. A sense of quiet and stillness pervades Sologne; even relatively upbeat and fully arranged songs like "The City, The Airport" sound like they were recorded so as not to annoy the folks in the next apartment. As a result, it takes several listens for the songs to fully reveal themselves, and if any record was meant to have a "Play Loud!" sticker on the front, this would be it: boosting the volume allows the songs a little breathing room that gets past their surface similarities. Not that the songs don't remain kind of samey: Svanängen's emotional gamut goes all the way from A to B on songs like "The Battle of Trinidad and Tobago" (actually a slightly tortured metaphor for a failing relationship) and "In with the Arms," and his weedy singing voice makes his countrymen Jens Lekman and José González sound like Big Bill Broonzy in comparison. Still, anyone who likes the twee end of indie folk will be all over this.