Starlet

Swedish indie pop outfit Starlet emerged from the late-'90s Swedish scene that also gave rise to Club 8, Acid House Kings, and Poprace. Fronted by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonas Färm, the group issued three sweetly melancholic guitar pop albums on the Parasol label before calling it quits in 2003. Two decades afterward, Färm revived Starlet to capture the material he had been developing at the moment of their dissolution. The reverberant "My Sweetest Ache," issued in mid-2023, became the band's first release since 2002.

Born in coastal Malmö in southern Sweden, Färm took up the guitar in 1992. Early songwriting efforts drew from then-current indie pop acts such as Popsicle, though a deep immersion in the Beatles followed. By the time he assembled Starlet alongside guitarist Joakim Odlund, bassist Henrik Martensson, keyboardist Anders Baeck, and drummer Ludvig Engelbert, Färm had cultivated a distinctive musical identity. The band's 1997 debut, From the One You Left Behind, centered on lovelorn lyrics, jangling guitars, and upbeat rhythms that sometimes incorporated flutes and harmonies. Three years later, the sophomore album Stay On My Side demonstrated notable advancement and earned strong critical notice, introducing a clearer chamber pop sensibility while expanding Färm's reach through more resonant songwriting. Starlet's initial run concluded with the austere, darker-toned When the Sun Falls on My Feet in 2002. The next year the group fragmented as members pursued separate endeavors including Pallers, the Bustups, Double Dan, and Babian. Färm relocated northward, settling near Stockholm and largely stepping away from music. In the early 2020s he returned to a collection of songs planned for a fourth Starlet album and recorded them independently in a solo capacity. The first track to surface, 2023's "My Sweetest Ache," arrived as a decidedly lush piece that evoked the band's prior sound while charting a fresh course.