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Dear John [Loney Dear]

Loney Dear
1 disc

1. Airport Surroundings
2. Everything Turns to You
3. I Was Only Going Out
4. Harsh Words
5. Under a Silent Sea
6. I Got Lost
7. Summers
8. Distant Lights
9. Harm/Slow
10. Violent
11. Dear John
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 171
Credits

Producer
Engineer Emil Svanangen
Personnel: Malin Sthlberg (vocals); Andrew Bird (violin); Oscar Svenningsson (trombone).
Photographer: Kate Gaughran.
Though not as endearingly weird or hooky as fellow countrymen Jens Lekman and Peter Bjorn & John, Emil Svanngen (who performs under the name Loney, Dear), proves on his coolly compelling third album, DEAR JOHN, that he belongs in the same sentence as his better-known Swedish indie pop compatriots. A host of indie influences are evident as the songs scroll past--"The City, The Airport," for example, begins like a lost Grandaddy demo, then swells into a Sufjan Stevens pocket symphony--but, when the music is as wide-open and breezy as it is here, this is a minor quibble. Melodies skim across layers of strummed guitars and well-placed synths, propelled by laptop beats--Svanngen's musical savvy is of the subtle kind. Still, DEAR JOHN is an intensely listenable, low-key triumph.
Critic Reviews

Spin (p.81) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[S]inger-songwriter Emil Svanangen has an affinity for pretty fuzz and a knack for subtly soulful melodies."
Paste (magazine) (p.54) - "Quivering with energy and packed with ideas, 'Airport' and 'Everything' make an ideal pair at the top of the album. They set the tone and establish the album's musical vocabulary."
Clash (magazine) (p.109) - "[S]himmering pop music with a ruminative air of romanticism and sadness....DEAR JOHN is a beautiful encapsulation of contradictory tones and sentiments, whether the product of devotion, obsession, love or madness."