After The Pipettes' fabulous encore, I hopped into my waiting car service (or probably someone else's) and rushed through downtown Brooklyn to sneak into Union Hall's sightline-challenged basement. Loney, Dear had just started their set. What you need to know about this Swede is that he is quite relentless. Already four albums into his short one-man-band career, his latest, "Loney, Noir" is pop almost to a fault.
Laden with hooks and cheery brassy Sufjan-strumentation, the album is precise and hopeful even in the face of mild tragedy, a state of mind that can be a bit much for those who like their sentiments sloppy and slushy. On closer inspection, the songs always undercut their own pop-bravado. "I Am John," the free mp3 offered by Sub Pop is undeniably the album's tour-de-force in peppy relentlessness (sparkly xylophone included), but Emil Svanängen's lyrics hint at a tragic romantic realism when he follows the chorus' "Never gonna let you down" with, "but i will always let you down."
My favorite track was saved until the Union Hall encore. Emil apologetically introduced it as one fan's favorite song that was botched the previous time the band aired it on stage. On record, the first bleepy notes of "I Will Call You Lover Again" sound like a demo, bare keyboard tones over Emil's wavering, thin vocals. "I'm not a boy, but I'm not accustomed to this." A waltzy, washy rhythm takes us deeper into the track as a fanfare of brass and percussion starts to break out in the background. The vocals win in confidence and we realize this is a mantra. "I'll whisper your name, and again," one man singing to convince himself he will win his lover back this time.
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