Loney Dear

Dear John (Polyvinyl)

By Catherine Cole
Published: December 11th, 2008 | 9:00am

Loney Dear is the creative force of a relatively new name on the American indie-circuit: Sweden’s Emil Svanängen. Dear John is Svanängen’s sixth record — his first on Polyvinyl, along with a brief history on Sub Pop, and a sampling of self-releases — since officially beginning his public musical career in 2003. This 11-song electro-pop album has been described as “a love letter to himself,” and he graciously allows you to listen in.

The opening track, “Airport Surroundings,” is by far the highlight of the entire album. The upbeat complexity of the orchestral electronics, layered with Svanängen’s soft lyrics, is a sparkling delight. The chorus echoes alongside the claps, strings, and occasional horns. You easily get sucked into his lines of love drama (“You, you were all I want”) and can flawlessly imagine being surrounded by the fast-paced traffic of an airport while frantically trying to get back to your true love.

“Everything Turns To You” is the second track and attempts to carry the emotional stature of the first song, but doesn’t quite make it. The production of the song is too similar, yet just ends up feeling overdone and heavy. The next few songs take the tempo down, which isn’t as entertaining, but still provides a nice contrast to his more triumphant tracks. Then “Summers” kicks it up again, allowing his optimism to be turned into a fun, danceable, summer-appropriate song — harmonicas included.

Dear John is a great pop record laced with some well-delivered emotional undertones. What gets mundane is Svanängen’s vocals (note to producers: less is sometimes more). The moments that make you fall in love with this album are when Svanängen’s backup vocals match him with equal intensity — or just aren’t there at all. Only then are you forced to silence your inner cynic and surrender to the music.

—