However, with their pop ideals and sing-along choruses, they don’t sound like an act who came from a city that enjoys less than seven hours of sunlight a day in the depths of winter.
Blue Painted Flag is the moniker of an artist that hails from the same city, yet on their latest release ‘Daisy and Dandelions’, their music is far more entwined with the seasons that make Sweden so special.
Opening with a soft, grungy guitar and vocals that flirt between an English and Swedish accent, it immediately falls into a kind of shoegaze trance reminiscent of Glaswegian natives The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band that are coincidentally from another dreary winter city when it comes to sunlight.
Whilst the music provides an interesting backdrop, it’s in the lyrics that the real beauty of the song comes to light. The singer perfectly encapsulates the rush of late evening sunshine when the chances to catch a glimmer of it are few and far between as he softly croons “Slow, bright sunshine / It’s all in the lighting baby / To capture smiles”. The drawling delivery also serves to highlight an undercurrent of melancholy that resonates throughout the beautiful three-minute track.
It would be wrong to say the song builds to a crescendo, it rather lightly rises with the introduction of summery guitar lines and soft drums whilst the singer repeats “Daisy and Dandelions”. As the song fades out, you can’t escape the sense of relief that it didn’t climax into a bombastic cacophony of sound as many songs do, instead the understated nature leaves you wanting to hear more.
On their social media channels, Blue Painted Flag often refer to themselves as ‘unknown’ or, with a clear hint of irony, ‘exclusive’. If they keep releasing songs as moving, engrossing and alluring as ‘Daisy and Dandelions’ then they won’t remain that way for long.
James Ogden
Image: ’Daisy and Dandelions’ Official Single Cover
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