Guest blogger Pär Berglund from the great blog Meadow Music is ready with another musical trip around the Swedish meadow, this one presenting soft rocker Frida Selander, pop-rock duo Instead Of Lions and jazz outfit Lars Åhlund’s Second Coming. Check them out and let us know what you think – comments are always appreciated…

Frida Selander (photo) reminds me of a young Chrissie Hynde with her warm dark voice, and on her new album ‘Try Again Baby’ I can also hear some Pretenders-vibes in her soft, retro-sounding rock. Complemented with some missions into country and blues, the album serves us a nice variety of tunes with solid songwriting that certainly deserves some attention.

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Mattias Jones Johansson (guitars) and Rikard Frejgrim (vocals, bass guitars), both former members of the band Naked, make up Instead Of Lions. They have given us a first taste of what they’re on to by releasing three tracks of pop-rock with nice melodies and hooks. Rikard has an interesting Ric Ocasek-sounding voice that adds some extra spice to the mix, and it will be interesting to follow this band.

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I’ll finish with something completely different, a jazz album. Lars Åhlund’s Second Coming have released their debut album ‘Fire In Ödeshög’, an album built on classic jazz clichés of different styles, but with their improvisational skills, sound and attitude added. A most enjoyable album to listen to even if you haven’t listened to that much jazz before.

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