Tim: Tom! Correct me if I’m wrong, but you don’t speak any Swedish and you’ve never heard of Sergels torg. So tell me what you think of this.
Tom: Ooh, I quite like that.
Tim: Nice, isn’t it? Happy, and pleasant sounding, though a bit of melancholic tinge. Lovely vocals, and you’re probably imagining something along the lines of a “sorry but we have to break up” message to it.
Tom: I was thinking more “I’ll get on fine without you”, but yes, something along those lines.
Tim: Well, actually, no. See, Sergels torg (Sergel’s Square) is a bit of a horrible place in Stockholm – it looks quite nice at night, because there’s a big lit-up monument there, but otherwise it’s a bit dreary, is a big traffic roundabout masquerading as a public square, and doesn’t really live up to its original imaginings as a piece of art.
Tom: So this is a Swedish version of Duffy’s “Warwick Avenue”, then?
Tim: Oh, and then some. The lyrics, you see, are also a bit awful – chorus includes lines like “when everything is over, what does it matter”, “what does it fucking matter”, “what is there to care about”; the middle eight brings us up to heights of “there’s nothing to see…there’s nothing you can do about it”.
So, hmm. Lovely music, really lovely. Just, um, don’t listen to the lyrics, or you’ll want to kill yourself.