Little Dragon – Runabout

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2011, or our Best Albums of 2011.

Photo courtesy of Little Dragon’s Myspace Page.

Is there something in the water in Gothenburg, Sweden? The Knife, The Tough Alliance, Jose Gonzalez, Jens Lekman, and now Little Dragon – those damn Swedes just keep pumping out irresistible pop melodies in a variety of weird incarnations.

Little Dragon’s track “Runabout” is certainly a slice of quirky pop, but it is uniquely, wonderfully sun-soaked; the soundtrack to a leisurely bike ride on the nicest day of summer, when you’re headed to your best friend’s house or the beach or a BBQ. A whistling flute echoes the nouveau-nu-wave synth line echoes singer Yukimi Nagano’s light-as-a-feather voice, while groovy almost-Caribbean percussion keeps it all moving along. I’ve heard it snows in Sweden, but listening to “Runabout” makes you question the very existence of something called winter.

Elegant percussive flourishes abound, the bass-line hits that unobtrusive-yet-omnipresent spot all good bass-lines strive for, and Nagano repeating “Runabout…runabout the streets…” sounds like a prescription for fun.

All in all, a tightly crafted piece of danceable pop that should be firmly entrenched in your “recently played” to prevent depression until spring comes. I would say more, but I have to go dance with my new girlfriend Yukimi.

MP3: Little Dragon – Runabout

Little Dragon’s sophomore release, Machine Dreams is out now. Buy it at Insound or at Amazon.

by Daniel Siegal on November 18, 2009 ‡ 0 reactions