Artist of the Month: Bjorn Norestig

Bjorn Norestig hails from Sweden, as so many pop artists are doing these days. Hello Inside is his first full length album, and was originally released in 2006. You can visit his website here.

Sharon's Rating: 3/5

Sharon's Thoughts: I enjoy the way his melodies are bright and hopeful, and manage to have a full and deep sound as well. I always love the use of trumpets! His vocals are pretty good, too, and work especially well for harmonizing.

Favorites: "We Can Make it Last"

Dusty's Rating: 4/5

Dusty's Thoughts: Wonderful moments of pure pope awesomeness, mixed with elements of folk and jazz. His voice works extremely well with the music, and the harmonies are amazing. The horns are magnificent; they really fill out the songs well, and perfectly complement the gorgeous sounds of the Hammond B-3 that is present throughout. I'm not too fond of "Character Song", but the rest of the album is terrific. A great album to listen to in the car on a nice day with the windows rolled down.

Favorites: "We Can Make it Last", "Everything is Good", "Feeling of Emptyness"

We're going to be altering this a little bit going forward. From now on, instead of Artist of the Month, we'll be doing an album of the month. This will give us a chance to talk about artists that have more than one album.

Next month we'll be looking at This is Ivy League's self-titled album. Feel free to join in.

Band of the Month: Glasvegas

So, we've decided that the whole "Band of the Week" thing wasn't working too well, and have now updated it to "Band of the Month". We weren't holding up our end of the bargain for weekly updates, anyway.
Now, on to the newest Band of the Month...


Band: Glasvegas
Discography: 2008 - Glasvegas
Background Ramblings: Formed in Glasgow, Scotland...their name is a combination of Glasgow and Las Vegas.

Sharon's Rating: 3.5/5

Sharon's Thoughts: I like them. They have a very soothing sound and are fun to listen to. I like his accent, and the way it sounds like he's putting everything he has into a lot of the songs; like he's throwing his entire self into his voice. I like that kind of unabashed emotion in a vocalist.

Favorite Songs: "Flowers and Football Tops", "Polmont on My Mind", "Stabbed"

Dusty's Rating: 4/5

Dusty's Thoughts: Massive reverb-laden songs that fill the entire room with sound. I love the guitars. I'm also a fan of his voice...even if I can only understand a fraction of what he's saying. Some of the songs have a definite 50's doo-wop sound to them...only modernized a bit.

Favorite Songs: "Flowers and Football Tops", "Geraldine", "It's My Own Cheating Heart that Makes Me Cry"

Next band: Bjorn Norestig
Feel free to join us and write your thoughts in the comments.