Happydeadmen - Eleven Pop Songs

In November 2010 twenty years have passed since the debut album ”Eleven Pop Songs” by Happydeadmen was released by Norrköping based indiepop label Ceilidh Productions. Since then lots of things have happened, not least when it comes to the Swedish music scene. The deed and greatness of this jangle pop quartet may not be that obvious today, in a time when everyone is a mouse click away from the “thing of the day”. But to, like Happydeadmen, in 1990 release a record with eleven tracks that pick the cherries from the British indiepop cake, and to deliver shimmering guitar pop in the veins of The Bodines, The Sea Urchins, The Smiths and Razorcuts – that’s indeed creating Swedish pop history. The explosion of the Swedish indiepop scene during the following years is a well-known story, whilst the memory of a preceding band such as Happydeadmen has faded slightly. This is the reason why we decided to re-release this album; the inexplicable gap in music history needed to be filled, but most importantly, songs like ”The Age Of Chivalry”, ”Silent Sigh City”, ”Life Inside A Frame” and eight equally splendid tracks on this record are as vital today as they were twenty years ago. Songwriter duo Hedin/Karlsson formed their sensitive melodies seemingly unaffected by the current Swedish music tendencies, and the quartet took the night train from Stockholm to Southern Sweden and the studio Svenska Popfabriken in Klippan. To record an album in four days only, and to stay overnight and sleep on the studio floor was not a common thing in a time when most bands simply sent their demos to the major labels only to wait in vain for a reply. But as early as 1989 things were beginning to happen for Happydeadmen; the self-released seven inch single ”Silent Sigh City” and the flexi single ”Heaven No!” were released, and Happydeadmen were – as he first Swedish band ever – on the cover of the music magazine Sound Affects. So, when Ceilidh released “Eleven Pop Songs” (on vinyl only) the Stockholm quartet were already a familiar name among the initiated, and the world was waiting for them… There are still a few chapters to write about Happydeadmen, they went on producing more fantastic pop gems but we’ve chosen to focus on the 20th anniversary debut album. And you will not find any bonus tracks on our CD reissue, since those have a tendency to create a whole new album, a “version 2.0" of a work. We have, however, put together a booklet with liner notes from Ola Hermanson, who ran the label Ceilidh and who is still going strong with his Sonic Surf City. One of the many who were influenced by “Eleven Pop Songs” when it was released was a teenager in Åhus named Johan Angergård. Twenty years later he has, among other things, created the bands Acid House Kings, Club 8, and The Legends, as well as the labels Summersound and Labrador. His liner notes are about paisley shirts, Rickenbacker guitars and Happydeadmen.

Tracklisting:

“The Age Of Chivalry”, “Emilia”, “We Swim”, “Silent Sigh City”, “Never Love”, “In Memory Of Broken Hearts”, “Heaven No!”, “Spectacular Way”, “Life Inside A Frame”, “9-piece-mirror” and “Is This All?”.

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