After years producing off-kilter instrumentals for other artists, Swedish singer-songwriter Fredrik Eriksson is finally launching his career as Mei River. Drawing a parallel between the inexorable development of technologies and the increasing loss of meaning for people who (over)use them, the artist expresses the dissatisfaction and the frustration of a whole generation. The story that he depicts in his debut offering, “HER,” sets the pace.

“It was a really cold day in Stockholm, mid-winter, below freezing. I spent all morning trying to write to the song until I gave up,” Mei River explained. “On my way to grab lunch, I saw an old woman clinging onto a tree. She was shaking because of the cold, and she couldn’t walk because of how icy it was. I helped her to her apartment building. She told me her husband just passed away and how she was just waiting for her time. The song was done a couple of hours after that.”

Combining bright bedroom pop arrangements with warm and somehow exotic textures, the bittersweet homage to this woman sounds falsely comforting. Watch the official video below.

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