Skip to main content

Nice Try, Sunshine – Various Artists



Year Released: 2021

Label: Appetite

Year Bought: 2024

My ambition of picking up weird vinyl really came true with this record. 

'Nice Try, Sunshine!' is a collection of Swedish indiepop from the 00s, put together by Gothenberg-based record label Appetite. An A5 note inside the sleeve sets out the thinking behind the record:

"How do you make a coherent compilation of a scene that you just barely missed out on, know nothing about or that maybe never even exists in the sense that you could even call it a scene?"

The tunes are apparently based on songs shared between friends over MSN, and has been mastered from those mp3s.

I picked it up in Flashback Records in Shoreditch, attracted by its cover and the fact that even though I had never heard of any of these songs or bands, someone clearly loved them enough to put them out on vinyl.

It's all very jangly, twee, and lo fi, but it just works perfectly. It's pure indiepop. Just look at the titles: 'No One Goes For The Most Clever Girl In Class', 'Kick His Balls Out', 'Everthing, Allright!?' (sic). 

The most pure pop on here comes from RingSnuten's song, 'Mellanstadiediskot', a ridiculously earnest and over-the-top tune about having a crush on someone when you're 11 years old, and looking forward to seeing them at a school disco. It's utter seriousness is perfect as when you have your first crush it is incredibly serious.

It is one of my go to albums now. I've resisted the desire to find out more about these bands. I like that this is all I know about them. Finding this takes me back to when people would make you a mixtape or CD and not tell you what was on it, so you listened without prejudice and with no idea what was coming next.

Beats a playlist any day of the week.

8/10

Full Tracklisting

SIDE A

Days - Downhill

Japan Air – Sept

Funday Mornings – Killing Thomas

Second-Hand Furniture – Nice Try, Sunshine!

Action Biker – Farrah

Signed Papercuts – Au Revoir

Ring Snuten – Mellanstadiediskot

SIDE B

Paddington Distortion Combo – Something To Say 2

Jens Lekman – Boisa-bis-o-boisa

Florian – No One Goes For The Most Clever Girl In Class

Rough Bunnies – Dance With Your Shadow

Free Loan Investments – Kick His Balls Out

My Darling YOU! – Everything, Allright!?

The Honeydrips – Hej Då, Karolin

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored.  And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coming Up – Suede

  Year Released: 1996 Label: Nude Year Bought: 2011 I know lots of people love this album, and it has got some great songs on it, but I just can't love it. It's too trebly, too thin, too cold. It kicks off with 'Trash', which is an absolutely brilliant tune with fantastic lyrics. Brett is at his absolute best here, with talk of "nowhere towns" and "cellophane sounds", and being the "litter on the breeze". I love it. But, alas we go from one of Suede's best songs to one of their worst. 'Filmstar' feels incredibly lazy. The riff is nothing, and as for the lyrics:  Filmstar propping up the bar driving in a car it looks so easy Filmstar propping up the bar driving in a car tonight These are Noel Gallagher-on-an-incredibly-bad-day lyrics.  I hate the riff, I hate the chorus, I hate the lyrics. I hate how shiny it is. It's lazy ... which is the title of the next song. This tune sees the first use on the album of the "here the...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bends - Radiohead

Year Released: 1995 Label: Parlophone Year Bought: 2000 Some records I'm going back to for the first time in a while. Others, like 'The Bends', are still in my regular rotation. What to say about this album? The crashing piano chords of opening track 'Planet Telex' give an immediate indication that this is not the same band that made 'Pablo Honey'. The album is a quantum leap from that record, which – while it has its fans, including me – is by-and-large the sound of just another guitar band. 'The Bends' is different. From the slowing-down-time intro of the title track, to the how-high-can-you-go guitars on 'Just', the album constantly delights. 'Fake Plastic Trees' is a magisterial effort, while 'Black Star' contains one of the great opening lines:  "I get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown, well, what am I to do?" The recording process for this record was inspired by seeing Jeff Buck...
Post a Comment
Read more