The Singles Jukebox

And now for someone we reliably seem to like…

[Video][Website]
[6.17]

Alfred Soto: I don’t know what kind of seltzer they put in their water in Sweden to give the interplay between strings and electronics such fizz, and rather than go convincingly goth like her peers Veronica Maggio believes in conventional love songs into which she inserts her right to express herself.
[7]

Will Adams: It begins with a bit of synth grit but soon moves into something more stately, what with the muted horns and staccato strings. I’ll never not love galloping drums, so “Den Första är Alltid Gratis” is pleasant enough as a song for a late afternoon drive, when the sun begins to curl around buildings and structures to create long bands of light.
[6]

Brad Shoup: Give the drummer some. Give the drummer anything. The drummer is dying out here.
[4]

Iain Mew: Hazy and bright, in a way that makes me think of neon lights through a rain-streaked window on the kind of journey that drifts into pleasant daydreaming.
[7]

Cassy Gress: The verses and bridge are the best part of this — the way the bass in the verses walks up from an A to a D is ominous, and then the bridge shows up with its exultant strings and even a harp out of nowhere, like she knows that everything she does has negative consequences but she revels in her actions anyway. The chorus and coda are some warmed-over M83 marathon crap, though.
[6]

Edward Okulicz: I enjoy Veronica Maggio. I enjoy her stereotypically Swedish melancholy. I enjoy this song. I don’t pretend that it’s not basically made of the same ingredients and to the same method as “Sergels torg.” It is, and I accept that. She says she was born with trouble in her blood in the first line, and her stream of sad but accepting break-up songs suggests it’s true, but would it be too much trouble to mix it up? Oh, who am I kidding, this is getting an above average score despite my reservations because I’m as predictable as Maggio is.
[7]