This Perfect Day

This Perfect Day emerged alongside Eggstone and the Wannadies as a leading act in Sweden’s late-’90s alternative guitar-pop landscape. The five-piece lineup originally comprised Mats Eriksson on vocals, Ove Markstrom and Richard Johansson on guitar, Peter Fahlgren on bass, and Ralph Tjarnlund on drums—high school friends who all hailed from the northern Swedish town of Skelleftea. Singles began appearing under the band’s name as far back as 1987, and a festival appearance led to a 1991 deal with the independent label Soap. Their first full-length effort, Rubber Soul, arrived the following year. While tracking the self-titled 1993 album that later found strong success across Asia, Tjarnlund departed; Johan Nilsson stepped in as his replacement, and the record received an American reissue on Orchard Lane in 1995—the same year Sweden saw the release of Don’t Smile. C-60, the group’s fourth album and a nod to new-wave textures, surfaced in 1998.