artist of the week lukas

There were many pop songs over the years that came out which I hated.

One of those were Payphone by Maroon 5, Just Give Me a Reason by Pink and Nate Ruess and All of Me by John Legend. Don’t get me wrong, those songs are good in their own right, but I just couldn’t stand the songs even when I first heard them. They sound really cheesy to me. When the songs became popular and they got overplayed, I despised the songs even more. Every time I hear those songs I cringe and my heart starts to beat fast and I get pretty upset. Those songs are like nails on a chalkboard. So when I first heard 7 Years by somebody named Lukas Graham, I began to shrivel up inside as well.

lukas graham artist of the week

Again, the song is great in its own right but I don’t think it was made for me. It didn’t really fit my taste. I just hated the oversentimentality of it, and the sound of it too. I didn’t like how the song starts with a melody from the piano’s white keys, a really poignant-sounding melody that becomes a motif to the whole song. That just screams cheesy to me. A song that starts really soft then towards the end builds up to loud tear-jerking strings, then as the song’s about to end, it becomes softer again to bring you down to a silent emotional release.

But I’m that kind of music lover who gives songs and artists a chance and after listening to the song a dozen times, it kinda started to grow on me. I still wouldn’t download the song tho but I got to commend its lyrics. It’s got beautiful lyrics but added with the sound, makes it really oversentimental like a Spielberg movie. The song might even get nominated for a Grammy next year. I also liked the way he mimics the Michael Jackson filler vocal mannerism. It’s a really good song in its own right, but I still wouldn’t imagine myself sonically enjoying it. I kinda feel it’s like the anti-When I’m Sixty Four, I’d rather listen to the Beatles’ innocent childlike pop tune than this heartbreakingly depressing pop ballad when I want to worry about my future.

So I started listening to the whole album to find what gems they hid. It turns out, they really are good. So I read more about them. I discovered they are a Danish band fronted by a 27-year old Lukas Graham Forchhammer. They started on YouTube around 2011 when they uploaded two of their songs and people started to take notice. They wrote and recorded more songs and got very popular in Denmark. I guess his friends didn’t mind naming their band Lukas Graham, they could have at least named it Lukas Graham and Friends, or something. Anyway, they released their first album in surprisingly called Lukas Graham in 2012 Denmark. The success of their first album translated to the rest of Europe and so they got to release their follow-up.

Their popular singles can be found on their second album called Lukas Graham (Blue Album) released June of last year in Denmark but it only got internationally released this year in April. The album is full of good surprises. I thought it would contain more of the pop-ballad 7 Years/Happy Home-type kind of songs but I was surprised to hear a lot of good ones that I especially genuinely like. The band described their sound as “ghetto pop”, but I can only describe their sound in their album as Bruno Mars taking over Maroon 5.

Their album is really good. It is a pop album, with a soulful layer and there are songs in there that are really funky. There are songs in the album that remind me of Jamiroquai and Jason Mraz. Go and listen to the track Don’t You Worry Bout Me and tell me who it reminds you of.

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Another cool track, I found is Strip No More, which along with Worry Bout Me, is my most favorite song from the album. Really soulful and very funky. Close your eyes and imagine Amy Winehouse singing it, it would fit perfectly. The track is also very Bruno Mars-like, the whole album has the Bruno vibe to be honest. The last track of the album called Funeral, an awesome soulful ballad that sounds like a track from Bruno MarsDoo Woop and Hooligans. There is also this track called Drunk in the Morning, which I expect to become a hit soon, it starts off with a very Adam Levine-like sound with the piano and vocals and stuff. Another track I expect to be played in the airwaves soon is Mama Said, a playful song about Lukas’s childhood. The track sampled the tune to Hard Knock Life from Annie in the chorus to give it a playful childlike innocence which matched very well to the theme of the song.

The album is surprisingly good; a pop and soul fusion. Lukas Graham as a musician and a band has earned my attention and is worthy of my taste. The album itself has very good songwriting and very good songs in general. I will be waiting for their fame very soon. I just hope they won’t get popular just because of songs like 7 Years and Happy Home. I want to hear more of their Winehouse/Mars like neo soul sound. Lukas Graham is worth listening.

Obvious influences: Bruno Mars, Amy Winehouse, Cris Cab, Cro, Adam Levine, Jason Mraz, Jamiroquai, Twenty One Pilots

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