Oh, those Scandanavians are just irrepressible aren’t they? It seems that when the French surrendered their semi-serious claim to whimsy, this loosely understood band of snowbound socialist wonderlands emerged from nowhere to carry the torch into the new millennium. That’s right, Scandinavia is the new capital of musical whimsy. I said it. I presume I’m the first…

But leading the fray, somewhat surprisingly, appear to be the purportedly bland Swedes, who seem to be pumping out a hyper-blogged sunshine pop artist every month or so. The latest musical flavour explosion is, of course, Lykke Li (real name Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson…), who has been so resoundingly plastered across the blogosphere that she’s beginning to resemble nothing so much as someone’s monomaniacal collage project. And I’m here to contribute to that project, because, shit me, her first LP ‘Youth Novels’ is absolutely gorgeous.

At a basic level it sounds a little as if Feist’s ‘My Moon, My Man’ has been expanded out over the full length of an album, although less feisty and more waify. Of course, this is no bad thing; ‘My Moon, My Man’ was by far the best track on ‘The Reminder’ - I just wished she travelled there more often. Which is where Lykke (can I call her that?) comes in. Lykke herself provides a superb combination of the sweet and bittersweet, without any lasting bitterness to harsh your buzz. She makes the sort of music you’re always putting on mixtapes to impress girls - jaunty, female-led pop with a certain world-weariness and savviness attached. But more than that, ‘Youth Novels’ is quite simply an unadorned pleasure to listen to, understatedly warming your world in the way that all good pop should. Older cuts like ‘I’m Good, I’m Gone’ and ‘Tonight’ are already wallpapering the Internet, so instead I’ve included a couple of newer tracks off the album

Lykke Li - Hanging High

Lykke Li - Breaking It Up

She’s also, it must be said, 22. And intensely cute… Which is why she’s Luke’s ‘Potential Wife of the Week’! Yay!… I wonder if she’ll want to put that on her MySpace? ‘Youth Novels’ has already been released in Scandinavia, but is set for a US release in early May, and a European release in June. I presume Australians are just meant to steal it. Fucking convicts.

-luke