I reached a point last year where I believed every band in Sweden was fantastic. Then I started visiting the sites of Swedish groups on MP3.com and learned how wrong I was! All the same, Sweden is a country which seems to have great genes in pop and rock, and the first US release by the Moonbabies confirms this in spades. Everything that Duckweed label owner Mark Moksyzycki has hyped about this band is true: the Moonbabies, released non-exclusively through his label, are surely one of the most talented bands in the European underground scene, with strengths that go far beyond those of my long-time favorite Swedes the Acid House Kings. The two Moonbabies, Carina Johansson (pianist/vocalist) and Ola Frick (muli-instrumentalist/vocalist), share musical characteristics with the popular Cardigans, their hearts embedded in both wistful pop ("I'm Insane But So Are You") and heavy rock ("We Still Use It In the Wrong Way"), but also in stripped-down guitar bands like the DBs ("Because You can't Explain") and Cat's Miaow.

My favorite song is probably their sexy-sounding ode to laziness, "We're Layabouts", a duet which has Carina sounding a lot like the Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan. It's also a song that helps highlight one of my favorite things about this band: they're not only diverse in the normal way (slow songs, fast songs, mid-tempo material), but sound like a different band each time they come to the plate. If I were to compare Carina's voice on each track of this record, I bet I'd come up with the name of a different female singer each time. The same goes for Ola, who is Richard Thompson (in "I'm Insane") on some occasions and a hybrid of late-period Sarah Records artists later on.

While I'm not entirely sure the occasional walks through the land of grunginess ("My Buddy Buddy") work in their favor -- sometimes, I felt like I was hearing an overly eclectic mix tape -- it certainly asserts the band's reach, and will make the Moonbabies' future releases a sure bet (and a hotly-contested property) for any label interested in releasing them. The duo's rich and accessible music definitely deserves to reap them some success, and Mark Moksyzycki really should be hired by a major label if his knack for discovering talent is always this reliable (Though for indie cred's sake, we hope he'd refuse the job -- Ed.).