He moved to Stockholm at 15 to pursue a musical career. He relocated to London recently to make it a grand one, signing an apparently massive deal with Island Records. And with his debut ‘Pieces’ 21-year-old singer Erik Hassle’s made a solid first stab at it along with songwriter/producer team Tysper/Mack/Grizzly and Fredrik Berger, all signed to one of Hassle’s new homes, Company TEN.

Released in Sweden last year as ‘Hassle’, the album has already taken his homeland by storm not least thanks to powerhouse single ‘Hurtful’, a simply excellent pop song carried by one of those grandiose, catchy choruses the album has in abundance, and in January Hassle won both a Swedish Grammy and a P3 Gold Award as Best Newcomer.

Calling for quick mentions of Keane, Coldplay and Snow Patrol it’s polished and very, very well crafted pop, suffering a little because of just that as there is a touch of “same-same, but different” when playing the album from start to finish, perfectly bittersweet acoustic album closer – and surefire live favorite – ‘Amelia’ the only song really deviating from the effective guitar ‘n (80s) synth pop formula.

This, however, doesn’t change the fact that Erik Hassle is a rare talent, witnessed especially by his intense, soulful voice delivering lyrics dominated by heartache with remarkable emotion, and if you’re into high quality pop he’s got an impressive number of (potential) hits lined up for you on ‘Pieces’.

Genre: Pop
Who: Erik Hassle
Album: Pieces (Hassle)
Label: Islands Records/Universal
Year: 2009/2010
Country: Sweden
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
Bump In The Road – Hurtful – Don’t Bring Flowers – The Thanks I Get – Amelia