Capping off a stellar year for Gothenburg, Sweden's eclectic Sincerely Yours imprint, which garnered an impressive amount of international attention in 2007 thanks to the sentimentalist indie pop of
the Honeydrips, the blissful tropical grooves of
Air France, and the epic quasi-political electro-pop of flagship act (and label heads)
the Tough Alliance,
ADHD is yet again something entirely new for the label: a good old-fashioned rock album. In many ways
Jonas Game represents a marked contrast to the rest of the Sincerely Yours roster: he's unassuming and musically organic where
the Tough Alliance are perplexingly conceptual and hyper-syncretist, and his songs and lyrics are as vibrant and life-affirming as
the Honeydrips' Mikael Carlsson's are wistful, tentative, and resigned. Still,
ADHD is rooted as firmly in the Swedish pop tradition as anything the label releases, which is to say it's infused with that spirit even if its substance may veer elsewhere.
Game's gritty voice sounds enough like
Joe Strummer to make tunes like the ragged "Quiet Land" and especially the half-time skank "Kids N' Dreamers" passable
Clash imitations, while others, like the jauntily strummed "Nothing to Lose," conjure up the widescreen Americana of
Tom Petty and
John Mellencamp. But for all its rock & roll rough edges
ADHD still features enough gleamingly melodic guitar leads, sprightly vocal hooks, and plain ol' Swede-style sweetness that the closest comparisons are inevitably to
Game's own countrymen, most obviously
Peter Bjorn and John, who would sound right at home amid the piano-guitar doubling of "Price Too High," or the driving, synth-gilded title track. And if
PB&J could score a left-field break-out hit in the U.S. with "Young Folks," there's theoretically no reason why
Game shouldn't be able to accomplish the same thing with a song as winsome and welcoming as the accordion-driven "New City Love," which nods to
Nirvana while also managing to evoke
the Pogues at their sweetest. Vocally and lyrically,
Game comes off as a lovable but somewhat unexceptional everyman -- he has his charms, sure, but much of the album's appeal lies in its simple, laid-back, communal feel, which stems from the loose, full-fleshed vocal and instrumental contributions of a swell backing band, including two of
Game's four former bandmates in the
Bad Cash Quartet. All in all, it's hardly revolutionary, but
ADHD is still a wonderfully assured and likable debut, another fine feather in Sincerely Yours' cap. ~ K. Ross Hoffman