She debuted in 2005 and a cover of The Killers’ ‘When You Were Young’ made her a name in the blogosphere last year. In February Astrid Swan (born Astrid Joutseno) released her second album, ‘Spartan Picnic’, in her native Finland to huge critical acclaim and the chart positions to match, with a release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to follow this October.

Armed with an impressive amount of instruments and a few backup musicians Astrid Swan strikes the same theatrical nerve as the musical and legendary Sparks (no further comparison intended) while working with quite serious subject matter in her lyrics. Like in ‘Sea/e Life’ where she contemplates: “The fiction of our happiness / When I say honestly / What I don’t really mean” – here seemingly about (her?) family life, but really a basic rule of much human interaction.

Elsewhere death rears up its ugly head in ‘Come Slowly Home’, but the lyrical highlight is aggressive album opener ‘Spartan Picnic’ where she pens a world’s obsession with war, citing Sylvia Plath’s poem ‘Daddy’: “Every woman adores a fascist”, before stating that this seems to be the case for every man, too, in a time when words like “hand gun precision” and “war crimes” are “less dangerous to daddy than a queer, gay pussy of a son”.

She’s been described as Finland’s first woman of song, and Astrid Swan definitely masters the vocal. Her crowning achievement, however, is her ability to intertwine the beautifully subdued with the powerfully theatrical, catchy pop with avant-garde, while still keeping a certain ease to her songs. Two prime examples are ‘This Could Be Mother’s Milk’ and ‘As Long As It’s Not You’. The first perhaps the only time a toothache has sounded remotely entertaining, the latter actually making ompa-polka piano banging interesting while reminding everybody of the joy of repetition in the chorus.

In Finland Astrid Swan’s debut album ‘Poverina’ was released in 2005 followed by the US in May 2007. The album established Swan as a major talent in both territories, and with ‘Spartan Picnic’ she’s ready to take on the rest of the world.

Genre: Rock
Who: Astrid Swan
Title: Spartan Picnic
Label: Johanna Kustannus
Year: 2008
Country: Finland
Language: English
DOWNLOAD DEBUT ‘Poverina’ VIA (‘Spartan Picnic’ currently N/A)

Recommended tracks:
Spartan Picnic – As Long As It’s Not You – This Could Be Mothers Milk – Sea/e Life