MANY VOICES SPEAK

Tank Town STRANGERS CANdY 6/10 Dislocated Scandinavian dream-pop debut

Matlida Mård swapped Stockholm for the less fraught surroundings of the industrial town Borlänge to make her first LP. In her head, though, she was inhabiting “Tank Town”, a metaphorical place that captured a feeling of being stuck in the past, not participating in the present. That detachment runs through this quietly affecting collection. The sparse, soft electronic beds and trembling guitarwork ache with dislocation. So too does Mård’s voice, particularly on The xx-y standout “Bony Shelter”. Not unlike the Lost In Translation soundtrack – 15 years old now – she makes unbelonging, cheerless as it can be, feel romantic.