Vapnet, one of the Swedish indie bands kicking our pop arses.

In the ’60s, the Yanks called The Beatles, Stones etc ‘the British Invaion.’ Of pop, not tanks.

Well, I think Britain has lately lost the pop crown to Sweden (and Scandinavia generally). Look at our pop bands, especially the indie ones. Ours are generally four good-looking lads who sound like Chas and Dave on guitars. They come, they go and their songs are quickly forgotten. Mainly because they didn’t have any in the first place: they had promotion, marketing and the NME sucking them off in order to sell copies.

Sweden, on the other hand, is overflowing with artists who manage to marry the most sublime, poppy melodies with lyrics that mean something (when I can understand them). Whether they’re making twee guitar indie, folk or electropop, the Scandies RULE!

Want to know who I mean? Just check out:

Vapnet, Sibiria, Bille the vision and the dancers, Bobby Baby, Komeda, Cats on fire, Agent Simple, The Concretes, the Honeydrips, Broder Daniel, Håkan Hellström, The Bear Quartet, Dorotea, Nixon, The Tidy Ups, The Knife, The Radio Dept., Logh

The above artists all write pop songs, albeit in different genres. It would be impossible for me to come up with a similar list of current innovative pop artists that are British. If it wasn’t for a couple of trips to Sweden and friends there, I probably wouldn’t have heard of 99% of them. And my life would be a little more grey.

Let us now hang our heads in shame… and then WELCOME THE SWEDISH INVASION!