I often wondered what it would be like if I was a muso and wrote a song praising my home town of Oldham. Not that there’s much to praise I’m afraid so it would be hard work. And then if I threw in a few words of encouragement for a Spanish town as well. Let’s say Alicante, a vacation destination for decades.
Would it end up anything like this debut effort from Oscar Lund? He’s written “A love letter to music, summer and Gothenburg” to which he subsequently slipped in homage to Barcelona too, where the melody first came to him as he moved rapidly from restaurant table to ‘Hombres’ to record a voice memo.
That’s right folks. A song conceived in a toilet. I think Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine might have done something similar with her breakthrough song and she admits she was drunk so Oscar’s in good company.
Try to ignore the title. ‘Långedrag’ translates as long haul not long drag and in any case is neither long nor any sort of a drag. It opens up with all barrels firing, a battalion of drums which sound like they belong in the Rio Carnival over a synthesised trumpet sound, setting the scene for that deference to Barceburg.
It’s distinctly upbeat, happy clappy, and in the instrumental chorus he’s found a really catchy four-six note melody that will stick.
That tune is strong enough to get him noticed on its own. The vocal I’m not quite so sure about. There’s nothing wrong with it but it is a bit run of the mill, meh even. There’s an absence of character in it. I don’t think it’s best to let a song play out and die on the last note of a verse either; there are plenty of ways to end one that are better.
But these are early days and Oscar has proved he can write a song that bears scrutiny. That’s the first rung on the ladder completed. Onwards and upwards!
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