Loney, Dear—despite stage appearance—is entirely the work of one man going by the name of Emil Svanängen. Recording by himself in his apartment or his parents’ basement it’s as if theres nothing involved in the process that he doesn’t do himself. Signed to Regal he is gearing up for his second UK release. His latest offering
Loney, Noir is actually a re-release of his self-released CD-R album from 18 months ago. Indie pop or electro pop, call it what you will, he’s good at what he does.
On first listen I struggled to deal with his vocals but was won over by the music and after a couple more spins I started to see where his voice fitted in. His music has been compared in the press to Sigur Ros which is no mean feat but I’ve always found their work to be very orchestral and depressing. Where Belle and Sebastian manage to bring in light energy to this kind of thing Svanängen’s voice puts what I can only describe as summer into the songs, cheesy as that may sound. Yes it’s annoyingly high-pitched at first but it fits. I spent an age trying to work out where I’d heard it work so well before and I can only think of The Magic Numbers pulling it off in recent years.
As the album goes the 10 tracks flow by and before you know it you’ve left the opening track way behind. You’ve rode through the first single from the album,
I Am John, and you’re virtually finished the CD when you realise that you’ve been smiling for the last half hour. Once you start listening to the lyrics though you realise its not all puppies, kittens and long walks on the beach. The opening lyrics to the album sort of give it away when he says; “Sorry I ruined your day”, but its songs like
Saturday Waits which is about missing someone special whilst being in another country that you start to realise that although it sounds happy it isnt. You soon start to hear the album in a totally different way from that moment on.
The single
I am John which was released on the 9th of April contains everything you'll find on the album in one neat package. The press release describes the album as “Layer upon layer, adding instrumentation and vocals, his songs seem to bloom like time lapse photography”, and I can’t top that description. Every song blooms from the tiny seeds he sows in the first few seconds of each track into something wonderful.
Funnily enough
Loney, Dear are touring to support the release of the album and have a few UK dates lined up:
Thur 19th London - Camden Crawl
Mon 23rd Glasgow - Admiral
Tue 24th Manchester - Night and Day
Wed 25th London - Monto-Water Rats
The album is released on the 16th April 07 on Regal Records.
http://www.loneydear.com/
