Much has been written about mysterious Swedish duo Morabeza Tobacco since the release of their first single, “TTYL,” at the beginning of last year — several of those posts coming from this site itself. And if that unexpected jam was included on any of your 2018 playlists, then we suspect that their self-titled full-length debut — out now on Luminelle Recordings and Naiv Recordings — has been high on your list of most anticipated albums of this year. Thankfully, all that waiting was not in vain; Morabeza Tobacco proves to be a curious and exquisite delight, a musical journey that will make you cry, dance, smile, and most of all, lose yourself to immersive memory.

Most of this is accomplished via the singular soundscape created by the group’s Vanilla Stillefors and Gustav Jennefors. Many of the words that have been used to characterize their sound include hazy, nostalgic, melancholy, warped, and lo-fi. Case in point, earlier this year NPR describing the aforementioned “TTYL” as having “a slightly warped, undeniably nostalgic quality… as if it’s been dubbed from cassette to cassette to cassette…”

This is an absolutely accurate assessment. Every track pops and hisses with a wash of intentional distortion — softening the sparkle of the slightly-bent synths and the crispness of the programmed drums — as if all the faders on the mixing console were set just high enough to allow the audio signals to rest steadily in the red of the VU meter. But let’s focus for a moment on NPR‘s description of the band’s sound as a “distinct mix of chillwave, vintage synth-pop, and funk.” As the statement aptly suggests, Morabeza Tobacco‘s influences are many, varied, and diverse, and the duo manages to successfully synthesize them into a peculiar and unmistakable sound. In a sense, they sound at once like everything and nothing else.

Take second single, “Defenders of the Glam,” for instance. Melodically and performance-wise, Vanilla‘s breathy innocence and Gustav’s processed vocals could almost be mistaken for Nina Persson from The Cardigans and Julian Casablancas from The Strokes, respectively, singing a duet produced by Ariel Pink. Earlier in the album, “Kiss of Death” puts an eerie and sad chord progression over a groove that exists at the intersection of Phil Collins‘s “In the Air Tonight” and Kavinsky‘s masterpiece “Nightcall.” “Together” could be described as Nintendo’s soundtrack to their hugely successful “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!!” video game by way of Hall & Oates, complete with the famous “Private Eyes” handclaps in the chorus. Meanwhile, synth- and harmony-heavy “A Little Longer” is like a bizarro version of “Tango in the Night”-era Fleetwood Mac — a kind of “Little Lies” for the new millennium — if Lindsey Buckingham and company took its funkiest impulses and turned them up to eleven.

Despite the massive popularity of many of the acts name-checked above, make no mistake: Morabeza Tobacco are outre at its core. In addition to the warped keyboards and distorted recording, other techniques are used to temper traditional pop sensibility. In the chillwave oddity “Something’s Missing,” the band eschews the typical 4/4 time signature of most pop songs and instead alternates (!) between 6/8 and 8/8. This same track makes use of an organ topline that almost serves as a chorus. At 1:50, however, after repeating that line a few times, the organ hits an unexpectedly off-kilter note that strays so far from what the song has done thus far, it feels like a mess-up. But this is no accident; the same thing reoccurs a couple minutes later, shaking us yet again out of the familiarity of the established groove. And in other tracks, the duo achieves a similar effect with guitar and keyboard solos that are so far afield from what would be considered “good,” that they somehow become awesome when situated within the context of the songs.

Thematically, the album sits firmly rooted in heartbreak and yearning. “We are almost home / And I am too stoned to / Tell you how I feel / Really feel about you” Gustav and Vanilla sing in unison on laid-back opener, “Almost Home.” The repetition of these lyrics throughout the song give the impression of obsession, of not being able to let go of a specific moment or event from one’s past. Such repetition is also heard on “Defenders of the Glam,” the pair again singing together, “We could be happy and we could be fine / Been waiting forever for you to come by.” In spite of the narrator’s best efforts at persuasion, we know that no one will be coming by.

“I feel you’re changing now / Possibilities are fading / Don’t ever lead me on / If you want to go, just tell me.” These lines comprise three of the four verses in “TTYL,” and there’s a lot to unpack here. There is an undeniably desperate quality to the lyrics, a begging to be broken up with as that would still be easier than continuing to bear witness to the slow, gradual dissipation of love. Immediately following this, in “A Little Longer,” Gustav and Vanilla trade vocals — his awkwardly passionate pleas, “Why don’t we talk? / Why don’t we speak?” to the angelic object of his affection are met with her earnestly wondering, “What if we tried? / What if we tried?” And yet it’s clear: even if they did try, things won’t end well.

The album ends perfectly with “Ally McBeal,” a lovely stunner of a closing track that I spent a few hundred words gushing over back in March. After several songs of hurt and longing, there’s finally a sense of hope and understanding: “I just had to call / It’s no big deal / Just want to talk / So what’s new?” Years have passed and both parties, having moved on, can now recognize the important role each played in the other’s life. The resultant effect of Morabeza Tobacco is that of examining a doomed relationship from different stages and perspectives — from crush to lover, from torment to acceptance — a kind of cubist portrait of a single relationship told in music. It’s an understated yet outstanding achievement, and simply one of the finest albums of the year.

Morabeza Tobacco is a Stockholm-based duo comprising Vanilla Stillefors and Gustav Jennefors. While it’s not difficult to guess that the band comes from Sweden (details of the production, smart hooks), it is more complicated to have an accurate sense of time when it comes to their music. Indeed, their retro-inspired songs are drenched in nostalgia and keep a strong lo-fi, DIY aesthetic even when they are made to whip the dance floor. A continuation to their dance-y single “Defenders of the Glam,” their new single “Orinoco” is a woozy, smooth disco bop with dreamy vocals. From the funky intro to the hazy final, the track is like a surreal travel through time. When asked about this new single, the duo sum up:

[su_quote]The song is about a feeling when you are lost in between fiction and reality.[/su_quote]

Every now and then a song comes along that just makes you wonder, “Where on earth did that melody come from? How did they come up with that?” Morabeza Tobacco‘s gorgeous new single, “Ally McBeal,” absolutely has that quality, and it just might bring some tears out of you.

The Swedish duo comprised of Vanilla Stillefors and Gustav Jennefors met one night in a club outside Stockholm. Since then, they built up a lot of buzz on the blog circuit throughout 2018 with their first two singles, “TTYL” and “Defenders of the Glam.” With “Ally McBeal,” however, Morabeza Tobacco veer slightly away from the funky, lo-fi chillwave-disco of those tracks and lean into a more nostalgia-drenched dreamscape version of themselves. The new song was, apparently, partly inspired by the animated 1988 family film, The Land Before Time, which at first sounds absolutely absurd. But if you’ve ever seen the movie and more importantly heard the score, you’ll understand how the swelling, cinematic strings in the song’s opening exemplify the duo’s sincerity.

For fans of last year’s releases, there’s still plenty to love here. Under the beautiful synth padding and strings is a bed of cheap drums and melodic bass, the kind of rhythm section one would expect from an old video game soundtrack, karaoke arrangement, or Casio keyboard demo, or more accurately all those things combined. Then come Vanilla and Gustav‘s trademark in-unison vocals, singing from the perspective of someone calling an old flame after having been estranged for some time. And although the washed-out lyrics are often difficult to fully make out, the melody still gets the point across. It’s affectionate and sentimental in the best way. In Morabeza Tobacco‘s own words:

[su_quote]It’s probably the saddest song we’ve written so far… Let’s hope that ‘Ally McBeal’ is gonna help some people open up their tear canals for a little cry that makes them feel better afterwards.[/su_quote]

And as the sound of rainfall closes out the final fifteen seconds, one could very easily get lost reflecting on that high-school crush we’re too embarrassed to admit we still think about. On paper it’s a mess, but in practice it’s transcendent, and it’ll likely catch you off-guard. “Ally McBeal”, along with the previous singles, will be getting heavy rotation around here in anticipation of the full-length album in May, releasing on Luminelle Recordings (run in part by the ever-awesome Gorilla vs. Bear). In the meantime, check out the song’s hazy, dreamlike, VHS-inspired video and let this lovely little lullaby wiggle its way into your head… and your heart.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KttmB6KT7WU”]

Swedish lo-fi disco pop duo Morabeza Tobacco are back with a new single “Defenders Of The Glam”. Besides its intoxicating bassline, the retro-inspired tune also features an uncanny percussion that reminds us of the sounds of one of these frightening creatures in Jurassic Park, a movie that marked our childhood. Childhood is actually one of the themes of the song as singer Vanilla explains:

[su_quote]’Defenders Of The Glam’ is about the feeling of a childhood crush, the feeling when you’re head over heels about someone you saw in the schoolyard or in the lunch line. When the only thing one could do was fantasise and romanticise the day it would finally happen.[/su_quote]

Then her bandmate Gustav adds:

[su_quote]The instrumental is like a homage to Defenders of the Earth, while the vocals tell another story that is more present. “Defenders Of The Glam” was just the project name, which in time felt suitable for the song name. We want to pick up from where the glamorous disco tracks and sensual love ballads started disappearing.[/su_quote]