Swedish House Mafia: More Socially Conscious than their Italian Counterparts.

Swedish House Mafia: One: 8/10



You can write down all that I know about dance music on the back of a teeny weeny stamp and still have enough room to scribe upon the thing all the words that I know in German and my opinions on Jordon’s love life, though I think this ultimately would say more about your suggestibility than my knowledge of dance music which is what I was prattling on about in the first place. Basically read my opinions with trepidation and consult someone who actually knows what they are talking about before buying.

Swedish House Mafia are a group of DJs and producers who are as a matter of fact; Swedish, produce what I am reliably informed is house music and have no known connection to the Mafia. Their first album ‘One’ came out just last week but they have been doing the rounds for some time and used to knock about with scourge of radio one summer playlists Eric Prydz.

The album launches with for me what is the stand out track ‘Miami 2 Ibiza.’ (Excuse the text spelling, my brother listens almost exclusively to dance music and the track listing is thankfully more decipherable than his Facebook page.) Tinie Tempah provides the vocals which flow nicely and are sexy, witty and consumerist which is the name of the game these days is it not? (I have a black BM she has a white TT, She wants to see what’s hiding in my CK briefs.) One of the best things about this album is the breadth of music referenced by the many samples used including: You’ve got the Love, The Four Tops, Empire of the Sun, MGMT and Coldplay to list just a few.

There is enough pop sensibility in here to ensure that the group get mainstream radio play, can demand massive fees for their DJ appearances and maintain their reputation in the specialist market. For the more hard core dance fans there are tracks such as Knas and Teenage Crime but to my ears and those ears being so tragically uncool these tracks leave me cold and yearning for the return of vocals and recognisable samples.

As only a casual listener of dance music there is enough to maintain interest across the whole thing. Samples that catch you off guard and the excellent production quality of the album to me make all the four to the floor nonsense worthwhile.