Throwback Thursday - Ode to Kent

Using this Throwback Thursday as a dedication to one of my favorite bands. I first heard Kent on a compilation album I won't at the Los Angeles County Fair when one of the KROQ DJ's challenged me to remove my shoelaces in 30 secs. I tend to attach music to memories, so this is the memory I will cherish that brought Kent into my life. So 15 year old me goes home and puts on the CD. The first song was Blur's Beetlebum and then some other crap music and this Kent song...

I eventually went out and bought their full record, Isola. This record has so many memories wrapped around it of late teens and early 20s. And I can't think of many albums that I can listen to from start to finish. But I do have my favorites. This was a very tough choice but I've narrowed it down to two.

Velvet:

One of the most lyrically beautiful songs I have heard, 747 (We Ran Out of Time)

So those of you who are familiar with Kent, know that they release two albums in both Swedish and English. The memory attached to their album Hagnesta Hill will be hearing it for the first time in Swedish. I didn't do this intentionally, but my awesome brother had worked for a record distributor so I had him order me a bunch of CDs. One being Hagnesta Hill, well when it arrived it was the Swedish version. I didn't care, I put that on and day dreamed that I knew what the songs were about. In those days, YouTube did not exist and music wasn't as readily available as it is now. You had to search for it. I remember the day I walked into Rhino Records in Claremont, walked over to Kent and found Hagnesta Hill in English. I probably squealed as any music lover would finding a treasure they've been looking for. Once I heard the album in English, it quickly moved it's way into my top albums of all time. Below are my favorites from it. The lyrics are amazing, beautiful and heartfelt.

Stay With Me:

Rollercoaster:

And lastly, one of my "theme songs" Stop Me June:

My main thing with this blog is to feature Swedish bands who write English songs, so I will stop featuring their music here. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't give their Swedish stuff a try. I am sure the lyrics are as beautiful and the songs are as touching as these two albums. Please Kent translate more songs, or maybe I need to actually use that Swedish Rosetta Stone copy I have. Good luck with that! ;)