Popsicle

This Swedish indie pop group started gaining traction beyond their home country beginning in 1993. Andreas Mattsson on vocals and guitar, Fredrik Norberg also handling vocals and guitar, Kenny Vikstrom on bass, and Per-Arne Wikander at the drums made up the original lineup; the four musicians first connected during a school excursion to Stockholm. Having come together in the mid-80s, they tried out various sounds until they settled on the name Popsicle in 1991. The energetic, British-influenced tracks from the album Lacquer, most notably the bold single “Hey Princess,” brought them a Scandinavian Grammy in 1995 and momentary notoriety at the ceremony itself. During his drunken thank-you speech, Norberg issued a pointed curse wishing ill upon that year’s Swedish Eurovision entrants. Bass duties passed from Vikstrom to Arvid Lind ahead of the release of Abstinence, by which point the band had secured a worldwide deal through Telegram Records, a Warner Brothers subsidiary. On the self-titled record especially, the awareness that the members are performing in a second language remains ever-present, yet the hypnotic instrumental stretches heard in pieces such as “Third Opinion” and “Soft” deliver consistent pleasure.