Så Mycket Bättre has been a bit of a mixed back this year. In truth, it’s mostly not been to our tastes at all. In week one, we found two of the songs to our liking – the ones by Lena Philipsson and E-Type. Then in week two, E-Type let us down, and it was only Lena Philipsson’s performance that got us going in any way shape or form. In week three, the most recent episode, things got even more dire. It was the week where the artists all covered Timbuktu’s back catalogue. And there wasn’t a single performance that we enjoyed – hence there being no post about it on this website at the weekend.
Normally we’d just switch off were it not for two factors.
Firstly, of the four episodes left – two of those are bound to actually be quite good. They’ll be the editions where the artists cover both Lena Philipsson and E-Type’s rich repertoire of scandipop. And they can’t come soon enough!
And secondly, there’s Laleh.
Laleh really hadn’t been on our radar at all. We glossed over both of her performances in the first two weeks, and didn’t really give her a second thought – casting her alongside the other artists and interpretations we’ve found to be underwhelming in this year’s Så Mycket Bättre. However, we’ve really had no choice BUT to give her a second, third, and fourth thought. Swedish radio, particularly P3, have been hammering her songs from the first two episodes of the show – ‘Just Nu’ and ‘Ängeln I Rummet’. And after a couple of days and relentless listens of each of them from the radio in the background – yep, we hold our hands up, we were wrong in our initial dismissal of them. Both are cracking tunes and we’re thoroughly addicted! ‘Just Nu’ for its infectiously creepy and retro psychadelica, and ‘Ängeln I Rummet’ for its pure and unaffected ability to induce a rousing bout of feel-good.
Sweden agrees. Last week both tracks held the number 1 and 2 positions for the week on iTunes. And in the most recent Swedish sales chart Digilistan, ‘Just Nu’ entered at number 1, with ‘Ängeln I Rummet’ debuting at 7. Whereas last year’s Så Mycket Bättre was unquestionably all about September – this year it’s definitely all about Laleh.
You may well have already investigated these for yourself based on seeing how successful they’ve been in Sweden over the last two weeks. But if you haven’t – then you can listen to both songs in their full studio edits below. And we’d suggest you do – hence this post;
Just Nu
Ängeln I Rummet
As for her episode three song – her cover of Timbuktu’s ‘Alla Vill Till Himmelen Men Ingen Vill Dö’ – well, we’re still unconvinced by that one. Although once again, we’re seemingly behind the rest of Sweden – as it’s joined the former two songs in the heights of the Swedish iTunes chart, resulting in an all Laleh top three.
