monty - dina armar

david pagmar aka montt mardié really didn't make much of a impression on me when he was doing his indiepop in english and i preferred his contemporary emil johansson (aka parker lewis) but then something happened. he started singing in swedish and this clip started circulating from mtv sweden's shortlived program fuzz.

it was this stripped down cover & translation of rihanna's monsterhit "umbrella" and it spread like wildfire and eventually on an ep of covers/translations along with beyoncé's "halo" (gloria), r.kelly's "the greatest" (den bäste), simon & garfunkle's "the only living boy in new york" (den enda levande pojken i new york) & peter gabriel's "solsbury hill" (saltarö berg).

this got me interested again and i liked a few songs from his 2010 album called just that "2010" but the track that hit me the hardest was this marvellous song called "dina armar". right from the attention grabbing bassline in the intro it sets the tone for a song that is going to be a torch-song.

pagmars songwriting carries on this tradition with the swedish indie scene of mixing the metaphors of love and death. with in that you have catchy songs saying things like "jag ska inte dö i dina armar, (jag ska inte) vila i din famn" (translation: i'm not going to die in your arms, (i'm not going to) rest in your embrace").

it reminds me really much of the lyricism in a song by annika norlin aka säkert/hello saferide called "vi kommer och dö samtidigt du & jag" (translation: "we're going to die at the same time you & i") and i think it's a constant reminder of the ironic generation of the 90's where joking about death was a common stature and it worked it's way into the emotional generation.

but anyhow this is a breakup song but the twist is that monty sings the verses in his laidback way and where he manifests that he & this respective other is not going to last anymore. but the hook on a glance is something that is cheery & positive and he pagmar belts it out.

i really love this song and i really like how that guitar comes in with the relentless rhythm keep pounding in the background and it just breaks up and it goes into this light synth melody and then the song kicks back after a verse and then with full force.

buy here (itunes)