After a decade becoming ever more immersed in the tropes of Americana, Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg decided to record their fifth album in Stockholm with producer Daniel Bengtson. The move back home certainly hasn’t dampened their fixation with the States: anybody playing Gram Parsons bingo will love Wild Horses II, the tale of a couple on a US road trip with the focal point for their divergence a car-stereo disagreement as to whether the Stones or the Flying Burrito Brothers performed the definitive version of Wild Horses.
Something that has changed is the overall mood of the album, which is noticeably more cheerful than on 2018’s heartbroken Ruins, recorded in the wake of Johanna’s long-term relationship having broken down. The Last One, in particular, looks forward to a happy future (“I want you to be the last one I ever love”), with Fallen Snow similarly loved-up. Best of all, though, is Angel, a gorgeously upbeat lament to lost love (“I love you, even if you don’t love me”) that recalls Fleetwood Mac at their most radio-friendly.
