There are numerous reasons I selected this track. Firstly it brings together two artists we’ve featured previously but not often enough given their status, namely Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John and Lykke Li, who almost counts as a veteran now even though her debut album was released only 16 years ago in 2008.
Björn Yttling is one half of the duo that formed Smile, out of which Abstract Crimewave has arisen. The other half is Joakim Åhlund (Teddybears, Caesars).
They will release a full-length studio album, ‘The Longest Night’ on 4th October and that title grabbed me because as I write this the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings of allied troops on the Normandy beaches is coming, an event immortalised of course in the movie The Longest Day. And as night follows day…well you get the idea.
The album title comes though from the importance of the longest night (and ergo shortest day), 22nd December, and how it is a turning point towards better things, and which is more significant in the Nordic countries than it is here.
The album features Lykke Li, Chrissie Hynde, and Swedish psychedelic rockers Dungen’s front man Gustav Ejstes and it is Ms Timotej Zachrisson who provides the vocals (and lyrics) here on what will be the second track, ‘The Gambler’ – as if you could fail to recognise her distinctive voice.
It’s a snappy, catchy piece of electro-pop enlivened by the fuzziest of fuzzy guitar and the melody will stick in your head but attention is drawn to Lykke Li the moment she enters the fray. The way she emphasises the last word in a line or verse, or the last syllable if more than one; I’m struggling to think of anyone who does it more sexily.
She took over where Claire Grogan signed off and has never looked back.
Even more so here, because she doesn’t have much in the way of lyrics to play with. The upshot of the song appears to be that she has unleashed him in the form of a gamble that he will return and commit to her before she finds someone else herself and that is actually her desire. Or something like that.
Anyway, figure it out for yourself.
There’s a pleasant, colourful little video that goes with it, full of imagery that I can’t get my head around apart from the gambling stuff but the white dove of peace at the end of it surely has a part to play. Or is it a pigeon?
The album ‘The Longest Night’ will be released 4th October via Chimp Limbs.
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