Tuesday Night Music Blog: It's Teitur Time

Teitur is the name of a man, not a band. So don’t go getting him mixed up with T’pau. Teitur (pronounced “tie-tor”) is from the Faroe Islands. Any idea? I had to look it up. It’s somewhere triangulated between Iceland, Scotland and Norway. Talk about the middle of nowhere. But his music has something. It holds an overcast quality that doesn’t succumb to being bleak or dour. He bears some similarities to Swedish (and labelmate) singer/songwriter Tobias Froberg or Jose Gonzales (another Swede) with his low-key, frequently spare sound – Scandinavian folk-pop, as it were.
Teitur’s new disc, The Singer, didn’t bowl me over. It’s a little bit too quiet and miniature in song, although several songs do blossom with some color: “Stop Wasting My Time” (which name drops Dido and Madonna) and “Legendary Afterparty”, while the title track offers an interesting perspective of a singer’s life.
The reason that this album is worth mentioning is the song “Catherine The Waitress” which stands out like the first flower of spring. It glides along on a wave of “ooh-oohs” and a percolating percussion line (marimba?) that conjures up images of the Cure during their poppy singles prime. An ode to a waitress who the singer admits: “you haven’t noticed me/but you are so good to me.” Teitur also tosses off a couple other winning couplets: “I’m not a resident. I’m not a regular/But if I lived here this would be my favorite bar,” and “Cross my heart and hope to die/I’m not drunk and I’m not high” that turns this tune totally charmer. Something like “When The Night Turns Cold” heated up Froberg’s 2006 Somewhere in the City CD (check that song out too!)

The Second Best English Pop Tune From Sweden

Here's one more thing to cross off my list. While “Young Folks” by Peter, Bjorn and John has been getting a lot of buzz in the last couple months (yes, I know, they’re old news by now), I have wanting to toot my horn for another catchy pop tune from Sweden – Tobias Froberg’s When The Night Turns Cold. It could be called happy Nick Drake, with doesn’t quite nail it. There’s a great bongo beat to it but it’s not kitschy. You won’t get sick of it as fast as those whistle solos that permeate “Young Folks.” “When The Night” balances its melancholy with some ‘60s folk-rock and ‘00s bedroom pop.
The song was used somewhere in a Panasonic ad but hold that against it. There’s a lot of cool music coming out of Scandinavia (Norway's Ane Brun whose A Temporary Dive features a duet with Ron Sexsmith is another fave). But more on her and others at another time. For now, you can check out Mr. Forberg on Youtube.com here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUDS8XNix4Q