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SEAN O’B^ Upstairs ^
Tickets €13.85 inclusive on sale Friday 15th June at 9am from Ticketmaster
When you distill the breathtaking songs of Sweden’s Albin Lee Meldau down to their essence, you’ll arrive at the man’s motivation: “Storytelling,” says the 29-year-old Gothenburg native. “That’s what will matter in the long run. If I achieve that, I’m happy. Anyone can sing.” First and foremost, Albin considers himself a musical journalist who not only documents what he feels, but also what he sees. But before you discover his gift for weaving emotion, detail and humanity into a unique blend of classic soul and modern pop production, you will hear his voice and be bowled over. Maybe anyone can sing, but as NPR writes, “Few singers can command an audience’s attention quite like Albin Lee Meldau. His voice is breathtaking, soulful, thunderous and impossible to ignore.”
Indeed, on Albin’s debut album About You, those pipes of his connect a rich history of rhythm and blues—Al Green, Van Morrison—to contemporary innovators like James Blake, Sam Smith and Hozier. Actually, the music does that too, swelling from spare guitar or piano-backed ballads, to Ronson-like mashups of hip-hop beats and sweeping strings, to hands-in-the-air soul-soaked dance-pop. That’s no doubt got a bit to do with Albin’s collaborators: writers like Jimmy Napes (Sam Smith, Disclosure), DJ Khalil (Anderson .Paak), and Neil Ormandy (James Arthur), plus producers Bastian Langebaek (Jessie Ware, Jack Garratt) and Jamie Scott (Rag’n’Bone Man, Ed Sheeran).
While there are some intensely sobering moments on About You—like the dark opener “Before & After”—the album is perhaps best represented by its forays into uncharted aural territories. “I Need Your Love,” cowritten by Neff-U (Dr. Dre, Justin Bieber) flirts with the pulse of house music while “Bounce” uses luxurious disco-era violins to enhance the drama of pounding drums and a fluttering falsetto. The hook of “I Beg” is in a category of its own—a raucous pile of chiming keys and blaring horns that’s loud and infectious and endlessly grooving. “My old music was stripped back, minimalistic,” says Albin. “It was ‘less.’ I wanted ‘more’ for this LP—more of everything.”
After a listen, it’s not hard to imagine how he’s already been nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2017 Grammis (Sweden’s Grammy Awards). But, again, it’s on that third play or so that Albin’s storytelling shines through. Take “Try.” If you catch only the first lines, it plays like a touching tribute to lifelong love: “When we’re both gray and old / I beg of you open up my letters / Tell me stories about drinking wine / How we took you out to dinner, how you danced all night.” Then it becomes clear he’s daring a lover who left him to remember his dedication: “I ain’t saying you should be alone for the rest of your life / but you ripped this heart out.” Her loss is our gain as we lean in deeper to hear how the story ends.
TICKETS
€13.85 tickets available online from WAV Tickets or Lo-Call 1890 200 078 (1-7pm M-F)
– 50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings. Final ticket price may be higher from other outlets.
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.
AFTER THE GIG
Whelan’s Indie DJ in the bar and Sonntags [Disco/House/Funk] upstairs from 11pm til late (Free Entry).
MCD Proudly Presents
