Now for something a bit different.
Sweden has long been a hub for modern pop music, and I'm not just talking about the recent Eurovision win. Equally, there's more to Swedish music than electro-pop, as Noonie Bao proves.
A young singer-songwriter from Stockholm, she focused her craft in Switzerland as a teenager and now, aged 24, is signed to EMI. Her music is inspired by folk, in a similar vein to fellow Swede Lykke Li, but with a lighter touch. Do You Still Care? begins as a playful piano ditty, incorporating synths and buoyant percussion. There's a sense of carefree joviality, culminating in a middle eight that features a panpipes solo. Yet lyrically this tells of heartbreak, "you are on your way and I'm still searching", with said panpipes accompanying Bao's "it rips my heart out". This juxtaposition of joy and sorrow is central to the song's appeal, seeping into the video which was shot in New Delhi for the festival of Holi. As colourful as it is, you can't help but feel the song's title is subtly aimed at the West and our views of the third world.
4/5
Listen: Do You Still Care? is available now.
