More than anything, the constant pursuit of new challenges and fresh directions signifies great talent in music. Stockholm’s (more specifically Sundbyberg’s) Oskar Linnros, formerly Kihlen of rapping and shouting pop/hiphop duo Snook, could have made another sure-to-be hit album with his former group; he could, with assured success, have produced another vocalist like he did Veronica Maggio in 2008. But this time around, neither of those options posed a challenge great enough. Linnros needed to make a solo album, and not just any solo labum: one with no guests, only Linnros’ vocals and production, one that provided him the room to transition from Swedish hiphop’s melodic poster child to a celebrated pop singer, moving middle- and teenaged hearts alike, carrying a strong tradition of catchy but adult (read: sexy) Swedish pop.

Linnros has always cited Peter LeMarc as a big influence on his sound, and that’s a pretty bold move for someone whose darker musical output derives from an almost diametrically opposite strand of Swedish music – Stockholm rapper Petter’s iconic debut Mitt sjätte sinne from 1998. Why? Because LeMarcs music is chart-friendly, upbeat, melancholy and happy; it speaks on the condition of a glowing or broken heart to a very broad audience. It’s the kind of music that touched me as a child (in a good way), but that I was always embarassed to let the cool kids know I was listening to.

Strains of that Stockholm-centered, 1980’s pop tradition have always been found in Linnros’ work, and here we come full circle, at least if we treat Snook’s 2005 song ‘Låtsas som det regnar‘ as the sonic starting point. Apart from the funky groove of ‘Debut‘ and the screwed-up voice in his hometown ode ‘Ack, Sundbyberg,’ the hiphop sound is abandoned for sing-along, upbeat pop music with sparse but always poignant lyrics. ‘Genom eld‘ is an epic, electronic tale of losing it all in one night of immortality that sets the album off right.

Second heartbreak single ‘Från och med du‘ is a cinematic, major-chord take on a tragic break up, and ‘Annie Hall‘ is a sedated ballad that captures the feeling of estrangement that many of Stockholm’s inhabitants must surely feel (”If only we were something more… more than about as attractive as each other/if you weren’t like the rest in this city“). Despite arriving from an outsider’s position, Oskar Linnros fits right in there, among the Orups and LeMarcs, crafting popular music with great mass appeal, but also great integrity.

Words Sven Carlsson
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