Epidemic Sound
Pop, 2022
Ladies and gentlemen, we have Loving Caliber!
Right, you might be asking: “Who?”
Well, according to the modest amount of information online, they are “a trio of songwriters and musicians located just outside Örebro, Sweden. The group consists of Michael Stenmark, Linda Stenmark, and Anders Lystell.” I have no idea whether this information is current, as they also don’t seem particularly active on social media. Maybe they’re just busy writing songs, or perhaps they’re the musical equivalent of Bigfoot—heard but rarely seen.
Still, you may have come across their music before. Their songs pop up in YouTube vlogs, shopping malls, or that one café where the coffee is overpriced but the Wi-Fi is free. They’re the kind of band whose songs you Shazam, intending to remember, only to forget their name five minutes later.
Then, Symphony No. 10 appears on their Instagram, and lo and behold, the full album is available on YouTube and SoundCloud. How nice of them!
The album consists of nine tracks, and anyone hoping for a genre-hopping rollercoaster might be disappointed. These songs are anchored firmly in pop—Euro-pop, to be exact. Despite song titles like Cincinnati, this album is as Swedish as a plate of meatballs from IKEA. And as a die-hard Roxette fan, I detect the Swede in those melodic licks and chord progressions instantly!
On the bright side, the songs are catchy in a “Eurovision, but with bonus expletives” way. There’s an old-school, no-nonsense approach here—no over-the-top vocal gymnastics, no gimmicky production. Just a guy singing songs straight out of Baby’s First Pop Rock handbook, and honestly, there’s a certain charm to that.
That said, I quickly realize that variety is not this album’s strong suit. Sure, Sleepless (4 A.M.) is a banger on its own, and Cincinnati has its moments, but put them all together, and they start to blur into one long, synthy, melodic haze. Even the album’s slower closing tracks, like SHIVERS (image of you), are pleasant but a little too… cohesive. Maybe they were going for a seamless, unified sound, but it teeters dangerously close to monotony.
Still, Symphony No. 10 is a listenable, slow-burn album. None of the tracks leap out on first listen, but they make for solid background music—the kind of thing you put on at a gathering when you don’t want awkward silence but also don’t want anyone paying too much attention. Maybe that’s the whole point? If so, mission accomplished.
