“Change of Heart”
from the album Love is Not Pop
2009
iTunes
El Perro del Mar’s latest shift in mood sounds like a real delight so far. “Change of Heart,“ from Swedish songstress Sarah Assbring’s new Love is Not Pop, swings from the sparse, prayerful minor-key optimism of last year’s From the Valley to the Stars and the sepia-tinged 1950s and ’60s pop melancholia of her gorgeous 2006 debut album to something sad, richly produced, and wickedly catchy. With Rasmus Hägg from fellow Gothenburgers Studio behind the boards, it sounds almost like Assbring has followed friend/former tourmate Lykke Li in Nick-ing from Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie, though here more in terms of crisp snare drums and 80s-style echo than cool headwear (Li and Assbring both have emotive vocals in common, though). A trippy bass groove underpins ghostly piano and Balearic guitar leads as Assbring sighs resignedly, “We will never start.”