Scandinavia is the currently the source of the coolest electro pop and its many musical exports have given many a coffee shop a better soundtrack than they deserve but does Sweden’s Amanda Mair conform or confound with her new EP “To The Moon”?
On initial acquaintance, there seems little in the way of ingenuity here with all five songs being neatly polished and wrapped up in radio and ear friendly – and sequencer powered – ribbon with Amanda Mair’s voice having enough dramatic presence to distract your attention from your mid-morning latté. Yet, there is more going on here as if Amanda Mair is simply playing with known formats to get her particular message across. There is, for example, a knowing euro conventionality to “Rush”, a movie soundtrack style drama to “Wednesday” and no one would doubt the radio friendly pseudo American emotionalism of “Hopes” but powering all that is here, in the causal plane, is the discord of something akin to a broken heart.
Maybe that is the beauty of this EP. It hides a degree of discontented subversion underneath layers of electro precision, modern day metaphors and emotional catharsis to thus subliminally advertise that there is something unsettling about Amanda Mair (and her ghosts) that will no doubt float to the surface as she makes her way towards the sunrise that is success.