Loney, Dear: Dear John

Emil Svanängen's worldwide debut as Loney, Dear (2007's Loney, Noir) was one of the most delightful things to come out of Sweden in some time.  On that remarkable album, Emil introduced himself as a sort of insecure, soft-spoken artist who just couldn't help but write some of the most endearing love songs of the past decade.  To sum up the album with one word, it was "hopeful."  Loney, Dear's newest release, Dear John, retains all of the artist's lovable characteristics, but turns to a darker side of music and love.  Emil has taken his mild feelings of inadequacies and fleshed them out into a bleak, complex album that finds the artist shelving much of his genius pop songwriting in favor of a more minimalist, sullen atmosphere.

One would probably not guess this from the first track on the album.  "Airport Surroundings" introduces a lot of synths and electronic drums, which were apparent on Loney, Noir, but not nearly as prominent as they are on John.  Beyond the upbeat track, however, are some incredibly gloomy lyrics.  Emil sounds as if he's on the precipice of a deep depression, battling with himself as to whether he will give into that hopelessness.  He sings, "I took the fastest way down when I surrendered this time.  I wasn't feeling no good.  I took the easy way out," while adding that "You were all that I wanted."  Hearing Svanängen pine for love is nothing new, but to see it wrapped up in such despair is quite the departure.

Much of Dear John seems to paint Emil as a person who is aware that he is in or near a state of depression, and oftentimes he speaks of "change;" the desire to change into a better version of himself.  On "Everything Turns to You," one of the album's most striking songs, he sings of trying to change only to confess that, "all the times I make it worse with all the devils in my head."  "Change" is a reappearing theme on the album, like on "Harsh Words" where he pleads, "Tell me I'm good enough, that I could change" or later on the fantastic "Distant Lights."  It's clear that Emil is a man at war with himself, and at the very least it makes for a more complex listen.  

Where Loney, Noir saw the artist compiling layers and layers of synths, vocals, and guitars to make large, beautiful sounds, Dear John finds Svanängen taking a more minimalist approach on occasion.  "I Got Lost" is the first time that we get to hear Emil in this way.  With only faint guitars and distant strings to accompany his vocals, the audience is allowed to hear the frailty in his voice when he asks, "Where's my lord to look for me now?"  Later, on "Harm/Slow," one of Dear John's most impressive tracks, Emil sings against a backdrop of looming danger.  The track, as the title suggests is actually two songs in one.  "Harm" seems to be about the artist overcoming his fear of danger, of death, while "Slow" seems to show the artist's depression taking over him, to the point where he ends his life.  He sings, "That's how I fell from top of twelve stories to the ground.  For the reasons I had.  The ones I know, the ones I don't.  For all I forgot, that is all I could do, that is how I want you."  Is this a suicide reference?  It's definitely up for discussion, but the song's abrupt conclusion would seem to allude to an equally abrupt death.