Righteous Boy
I Sing Because Of You
Stockholm Records

Righteous Boy is Magnus Sveningsson from the Cardigans. Like that band's guitarist Peter Svensson and singer Nina Persson he has made a solo record. While Peter Svensson's Paus was let down by Svensson's weak voice, Persson's A camp was a excellent. Sveningsson falls somewhere between these two with a low key but charming record. His voice is really not that special, but his songs stand out.

The sound on the cd is light and poppy, but not as carefree as on the Cardigans' albums. "No More Love" is achingly sad and uses plaintive female backing vocals to great effect. "No more love till I find you", Sveningsson sings and sounds like his heart will never mend.

The only up-tempo track is "Elephant Man" which is fuzzy and distorted, but still kind of cuddly. "I made it hard for you to love me" has a use of strings and backing vocals that is a bit like Leonard Cohen in the sixties. The grand closer "You better do good" is a good way to end the album. "You better do good for your fellow man", he sings and actually sounds sincere rather than sanctimonius.

Copyright © 2002 Anna Maria Stjärnell