Sweetheart - “These Summertime Blues”
Photo: David B Torch
Ladies and gentlemen, wrap your ears around the warm and heartfelt sounds of Sweetheart’s “These Summertime Blues.”
The track opens quite softly, with a stripped-back and mesmerizing acoustic guitar and string arrangement. This exquisite and melancholic performance is the primary source of sound for the track’s duration. It’s warm and thoughtful, as well as an obvious indication that you are about to witness some raw, introspective lyrics– and that’s exactly what you get.
While the instrumental is perfecto, the voices of John-Arne Ø. Gundersen and Anne Mette Hårdnes have completely filled our hearts and souls. Gundersen leads the way through the verses, his voice ever-so-reminiscent of Wesley Schultz from Lumineers fame. And Hårdnes joins for some luscious harmonies on the refrain– if you recall, we simply cannot say no to a good, old-fashioned male + female duet, especially one as emotionally charged as this.
“These Summertime Blues” is the third single from Sweetheart’s soon-to-be released sophomore LP, I Will Love You When The Morning Comes via Mother Likes It Records. The song includes music from multi-instrumentalist Freddy Holme, and was produced and mixed by legend Kai Anderson. As summer dreadfully draws to a close, we cannot think of a better tune to provide a soundtrack for the shift in seasons.
This track is bound to cause you to further explore the sounds of Sweetheart. And if that is the case, we are more than happy to recommend the vibey, old-timey guitar sounds of “Go Easy,” also from the group’s upcoming LP. This one features some fantastic lead guitar which, to our ears, has been captured on a resonator, but, of course, a definite highlight is the constant vocal harmonization of Gundersen and Hårdnes.
And since we’re discussing songs from the record, we would be remiss not to include the dark and melancholic vibes of “Like Shadows In The Night.” If you, like us, have completely fallen in love with music of Sweetheart, this one will just add icing to that already delicious musical cake. It’s a bit slower, but filled to its brim with raw emotion and, when it comes to indie folk, this is exactly the way we like it.
-HD