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May 20, 2009 Web Exclusive By Laura Studarus

Cyndi Lauper said it best: Girls just want to have fun. Joining the pack of Swedish-imported fun is Stockholm-based, all-girl quintet, Those Dancing Days. Its name derived from the Led Zeppelin song “Dancing Days,” the group of fresh-faced high school grads share more in common with fellow girl group The Pipettes or Blondie front-woman Deborah Harry than the heavy mysticism of Led Zeppelin IV.

What’s most intriguing about Those Dancing Days is what might be their most obvious trait: In an age of hyper-sexuality and children growing wise before their years, Those Dancing Days is a group of teenagers…who actually sound like kids. Songs tinged with youthful nostalgia for moments occurring in present tense, their debut full-length In Our Space Hero Suits plays like a modern Norman Rockwell painting. Being in love, a girl might be moved to make “the best mixtape in the recorder,” and breakups include the “it’s not you, it’s me” phrase, “Soon you’ll hook up with the prettiest girl in town/And when you do I’ll feel a sting of regret.” Delivered by sweet-voiced lead-woman Linnea Jönsson, it’s easy for the listener to indulge in daydreams of a simpler time and place.

While musically simplistic, their reach never extends beyond their straightforward party-starter grasp. Fellow countrywoman Lykke Li may use similar means to achieve a darker end, but Those Dancing Days’ elementary paint-by-numbers songs have a much simpler goal: to get you up and moving. And like an espresso shot straight to the brain, it works. However, the problem with having precious few musical tools at one’s disposal, or having one’s synthesizer stuck on a single BPM setting, is that, sooner or later, every song sounds the same. While Those Dancing Days might be optimistic enough to name a song “Hitten,” (Swedish for “Hit”) it’s easily interchangeable with any of In Our Space Hero Suits’ toothache-sweet tracks. The album might get the party started, but its unrelenting uniformity is likely to relegate Those Dancing Days to background music.

(www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays)

Author rating: 5/10