Frida Sundemo – Indigo | EP review

Sweden is maintaining its status as one of the most fruitful hubs of musical freshness; from Shout Out Louds to Robyn, Scandinavia keeps turning out gems.

Frida Sundemo is no exception. Her new EP Indigo is a six-track delight, fresh and quirky with enough pith to keep you entertained.

Title track Indigo opens with drum loops and keys in a swirling pop packet, with shades of La Roux, signalling inevitable radio success, imploring “You don’t have to be forever star-crossed” before bouncing into a layered backing vocal chorus. Sundemo’s soft whispy voice floats over synths and sound signatures in equal measure – a wholly well constructed and memorable track.

Snow could be straight from a Goldfrapp album, complete with arpeggio intro and minimal electronic drums. A mid-tempo track striving for electro-power ballad importance, Snow is quaint but disposable, with Sundemo pleading “Come sun, goodbye Mr Cold” and causing lyrical weakness in an otherwise peppy song.

“A thousand knives couldn’t hurt me now” claims third track Jaguar, as the singer uses tribal drums and vocoders for stoic effect, her accent allowing for multisyllabic resonance.

Home uses more “ooh” backing vocals to fill out a fairly sparse instrumental. The overt tenderness of Sundemo’s voice can at times distract from lyricism, however her knack for catchy electro-pop lends a helping hand beneath the high-hat repetition.

Machine is Indigo’s most experimental offering due to its bones-on-show attitude. “She’s just a machine, but she can still feel her heart bleeding” – exposed and poised, she laments the feelings portrayed throughout the EP, seeking acceptance and understanding, both personally, and now (having abandoned a career in medicine) in the music world.

Sundemo closes with a string version of Indigo, which loses the power and dynamism of the original, showing that this is an artist with tremendous space to grow and improve.

This is smart pop: easy, accessible and most importantly, honest.

Victoria Sanz-Henry

Indigo is available to purchase now. For further information or to order the album visit Frida Sundemo’s website here.

Watch the video for Indigo here: