Pars Arts

Laleh

Seeing Haale this weekend reminded me of another talented Iranian female musician, Laleh, who I first heard a year and a half ago. She lives in Sweden and won three Swedish Grammis in 2005 (best artist, best new artist, and best producer) for her self-titled debut album, which also happens to be trilingual – English, Swedish, and Persian songs are featured. My favorite song on that album was actually a Swedish song called Storebror, which is playful and fun. In fact, that’s what her whole style is – there’s no pseudo-seduction or pretense with this artist and she seems genuinely cool, which is true charisma. And her voice is strong and natural and her style incorporates acoustic and also slightly poppier sounds, but never the sort of over-processed, synthesizer-heavy stuff that makes most Iranian pop so saccharine and tough to listen to for long. Here’s the Storebror video, via YouTube:

Her sophomore album, Prinsessor, was released in Sweden just last month, and the video for one of its songs, November, has me sort of hooked. The lyrics start: Well, you know me/I’ve never been afraid/I always jumped into it/With my whole heart and no shame. Sounds like an anthem for 2007, no? Here’s the YouTube video:

Both her albums are next to impossible to find in the U.S., but the magic of iTunes makes the first one available for download online (the new album is only available on the Swedish iTunes store at the present time), and the new album can be purchased at CD Wow.