Episode 1 - Winter
Writer Danny Robins talks about the music featured in episode 1 of The Cold Swedish Winter.
It's February. Geoff has been in Sweden for just a month and I tried to choose songs that captured the conflicting emotions going on in his head and the wintry weather outside.
We rather indulgently have two theme tunes on The Cold Swedish Winter. Each episode kicks off with the insistent, driving I Follow Rivers by Swedish Indie queen Lykke Li from her second album Wounded Rhymes. I’d be hard pressed to think of an artist who better encapsulated the essence of that particularly Swedish bittersweet melancholic sound. I come back to her later this episode for I’m Good, I’m Gone, taken from her debut album Youth Novels.
The programme’s second theme tune is of course The Cold Swedish Winter, by Gothenburg-based Jens Lekman. Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city has a vibrant music scene and Jens is one of its brightest lights, a very funny and dry singer songwriter. The song served as the inspiration for the programme’s title and its refrain, “The cold Swedish winter is right outside and I just need somebody to hold me through the night” perfectly embodies what the programme is about – Geoff’s struggle to fit in, the way he grows to love Swedes despite their initial frostiness and his need to be loved in return.
Two other Gothenburg artists feature this episode; brother and sister duo The Knife who are relatively well known now for their brand of intelligent, offbeat dance music and Jose Gonzalez, whose Heartbeats that I use here is actually a cover of a song by The Knife. Jose, who despite his Latin sounding name is a Swede, saw his version become a worldwide hit after it was used in a Sony commercial. You may well recognise it.
The non-Swedes who have snuck in this episode are allowed because they both sing songs called ‘Sweden’. Neil Hannon’s The Divine Comedy have the slightly tongue in cheek line “I would like to live in Sweden, when my work is done” and The Stranglers, begin “Let me tell you about Sweden, only country where the clouds are interesting.”
There’s the obligatory Abba track – ‘I Have a Dream’, here put to rather melancholic use as Geoff’s dream of breaking the Swedish comedy scene turns sour and the soundtrack to his descent into snow-blinded miserableness is Winter Beats by the excellent Stockholm band I Break Horses.
Finally we have two novelty offerings - The Ski Sunday theme – the perfect backdrop to Geoff and Ian’s snowmobile dash through the forest – and the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. The Swedish Chef was perhaps the first introduction a lot of people had to Swedes as kids. As an irate Linda says to Geoff, they don’t really sound like that. I’ve certainly never actually heard a Swede say ‘hurdy gurdy’, if anything he sounds more Danish.
Episode 1 playlist
The Cold Swedish Winter – Jens Lekman
Christmas Smorgasbord – The Swedish Chef
