This week the sound narrows in on Denmark, “the happiest place on earth.” It’s a country of coastline, midnight sun, brutal winters, hygge, natural wine, blonde people, the birthplace of Aqua, the panton chair, rainy days. We begin with Da Solen Kom, otherwise “when the sun came.” This album takes the melancholy of continual darkness and fixes it against the sounds of the sun — high pitched, Beach Boys-esque la la la’s, bright flute and spanish-style guitar. The album is the best of the pysch-funk of the 70s and takes cues from country, folk, traditional, rock and bubblegum California pop. Pop fusion has staying power in Denmark, as Emma Sehested Høeg shows on her album from this summer. She spreads airy, ethereal vocals like butter over wall-to-wall, ambient synth and offbeat riffs and grooves. This is an album for both your little sister and your cool uncle. The coolest album this week is undoubtedly Dosage by OTOOTO, a record that embraces contemporary jazz yet also reinvents it. It layers traditional jazz over dream pop over erotic R&B over warbling tape machines. The album is named after the sugar added to champagne, a dosage of sugar to crate the right balance, and it certainly sparkles and pops in the same way as the drink that inspired it. Hvor Flink Kan Man Blive by Dieters Lieder is an 80s album. The wham of the drums, the Roland bops and the growling vocals sound like something out of the club scene in the Wedding Singer — loud and sexy. We end with Drops, an iconic jazz-rock album out of Denmark by some of their most seasoned musicians. This album is martini drinking music.
Skål!
The playlist is here.
This week the playlist is made entirely of songs by Danish artists. Enjoy!
Monday
Da Solen Kom - Stig & Steen (1973)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Dame Dearest (Pilot) - Emma Sehested Høeg (2023)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Dosage - OTOOTO (2022)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Hvor Flink Kan Man Blive - Dieters Lieder (1988)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Drops - Drops (1974)
Spotify / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with:
Chicken Salad With Mushrooms and Bacon. More recipes from literal countries! This one comes from the government of Denmark. They love their bread there and this is a great topping to any rye or sourdough.
Danish meatballs. It seems fitting to compare Swedish versus Danish meatballs here. These are a big more flat and are pork only.
Vinho Verde Pet Nat. Still on this Portuguese wine kick. They all taste like beach and sunshine. (BEACH).
Malene Birger Leather Wine Tote. A chic wine tote!! This is the first item on my Christmas list.
HAY pitcher. I can’t write about Denmark without including something from HAY. I’ve loved these forever and they’ll pair well with the wineglasses I rec’d last week.
In the morning there was hope. It sat like a fleeting gleam of light in my mother’s smooth black hair that I never dared touch; it lay on my tongue with the sugar and the lukewarm oatmeal I was slowly eating while I looked at my mother’s slender, folded hands that lay motionless on the newspaper, on top of the reports about the Spanish flu and the Treaty of Versailles.
- Tove Ditlevsen, The Copenhagen Trilogy
I highly recommend this book. Bookshop link is here.
Thank you, thank you. Enjoy.
Bonus album: Electric City