The 1990's were great times for Swedish Power Pop. Bands like Popsicle, The Trampolines and the Wannadies were making terrific poppy records that mixed bubblegum hooks with punk attitude. With the exception of the Wannadies, many of these bands only produced one or two albums and by 2000, very few of the Swedish Power Pop bands were recording any more.
In 2004, the Metro Jets represented a minor Swedish Power Pop resurgence. They were a "Supergroup" of sorts featuring the talents of Magnus Börjeson , the leader of the prototypical Swedish Powerpop group "Beagle" as well as David Birde, the guitar player and sometime lead singer of the Malmo based band "Brainpool". The Metro Jets released three essential singles, some minor movie music and then promptly faded from view.
This compilation includes all of the Metro Jet's released material along with two late compilation tracks by Beagle . It starts with an overture of sorts by Brainpool extracted from Brainpool's 2004 rock opera entitled "Junk" called the "Metro Jets Permiere Concert". Evidently a fictional band called "The Metro Jets" were characters in that opera. (Must have been the origin of the Metro Jets name.) Rounding out the collection are some unfinished incidental tracks posted on the Metro Jets old website as well as some music recently posted by Magnus Börjeson.
I'll admit that the collection trails off at the end - however you have got to hear track number 2, The Morning Show. It's a Powerpop classic. If you like this, you should really pick up Favorita (another post-Beagle project from Magnus Börjeson ). Great stuff.
- Metro Jets Premiere Concert (From Brainpool rock opera "Junk")
- The Morning Show (Metro Jets single)
- Love Grows (Late Beagle track covering Edison Lighthouse from "Right to Chews" bubblegum compilation)
- Boat (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- The Midas Touch (B-side of Metro Jets single)
- Lady Gwendoline (Metro Jets single)
- Aluminum (Demo posted on old Metro Jets website)
- Well, It's Only Pain (Late Beagle track from International Pop Overthrow Vol. 4)
- Fish (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- Jingle Jangle Christmas (Metro Jets Christmas single featuring Helena Josefsson & Vibeke Saugestad)
- Glasgow (Demo posted on old Metro Jets website)
- Grand Desert (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- Neon (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- Robbie W's Best (Demo posted on old Metro Jets website)
- Metro Jets Premiere Concert Part 2 (From Brainpool rock opera "Junk")
- Candle (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- Pastis & Petanque (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- Woman and Gramophone (Incidental music posted by Magnus Börjeson on Sound Cloud)
- Metro Jets Permiere Concert Live (From live performance of Brainpool rock opera "Junk")
6 comments:
Thank you so much for posting this :-)
thanks for this love beagle and favorita but never really heard this lot
Let me know what you think Jay. Check your Favorita CD and you'll find a version of the track entitled "Well It's Only Pain, Beagle Version". I've listened to that a bunch of times and the version I posted here is truly a different arrangement from the two versions on the Favorita CD.
Do you have the bonus tracks from the two Beagle albums and singles? I'm looking for those rare tracks. Tracks like Dum Dum Diddle, A Real Good Deal, Beneath You and Beyond Him and Crap, Previously Unreleased Backgrounds... Please let me know if you have them.
I'm going to link to the great interview you did with Magnus a few years ago. Thanks lots for that. Great stuff.
Hi,
Great words about Beagle, one of my all time favourite Swedish bands.
I saw them live once, just after the release of their first album and it was indeed a strange experience, a festival gig in my home town, starting at 8 pm - and 8 pm in the land of the midnight sun is a strange experience for night time people.
My wife used to see them in Lund, where she studied at the university, they were then called Koks i Lasten, after a Herge/Tintin comic album and they were, as I understand it, mainly a cover band.
If I´m not mistaken, they played an unexpected cover in the set I mentioned above, probably an artefact from their days as a university cover band.
Great blog, btw - I write for a swedish blog popgeni.blogg.se as well as my own blog Three minutes in Popland (wwww.threeminutesinpopland.com). We seem to be taken by the same music!
Cheers
Torbjorn
I'm finding this post very belatedly. There are some tracks here even I've never heard!
You guys should check out this lovely interview with Magnus on Nordic Rox (Sirius XM) back in March:
http://soundcloud.com/popsiclerecordings/magnus-b-rjeson-interview-on
He's currently a member of Roxette playing bass in their never-ending reunion tour. Incidentally Christoffer Lundquist is on guitar.
If you're still looking for those Beagle rarities you mention, drop me a line at my name @ my name dot com.
Cheers,
Luke
please can you re post this album they are such a good band
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