Boy Omega (Martin Hasselgren) was in these pages not that long ago (March) with a fascinating, imaginative song, ‘Hollow’, which he associated with the 1990s David Lynch creation, the TV series Twin Peaks, while my associations were more along the lines of 1960s British TV dramas, Amy Whitehouse, Paul Oakenfold and Peter Gabriel.
You can’t get more eclectic than that lot and almost guaranteed we’d be watching out for his next effort. It also helps that in his artist name and the title of this latest single, ‘Rocket’, he managed to incorporate the title of one of Elbow’s better songs and a local anthem in Manchester to rival Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ and James’ ‘ Sit Down’, namely the inspirational ‘Build a rocket, boys’.
Speaking of eclectic, he introduces the song in his press release by identifying it as “Kraftwerk meets Elliott Smith and The Ronettes?
Well I hear not too much of those, I just hear Boy Omega, with a simple plea which amounts to:
“Love is all we got/Keep me in your pocket/Speed your love to me/faster than a rocket.”
(The speed your love to me line is a nod to one of his all-time favourite songs, ‘Unchained Melody’ by The Righteous Brothers
It’s the same power of love that Jennifer Rush sang about, transported into space.
Minimalistic and lo-fi, with acoustic piano accompaniment from Daniel Juline, it stands in contrast to ‘Hollow’ but it’s not the sort of rocket that Elon Musk often fires off and comes back down to Earth with a bang, rather the sort of stately craft that Bowie flew in and with a similar message of isolation and detachment.
‘Rocket’ is from his forthcoming album/mixtape ‘Bloom’, scheduled for release in September 2026 and the first record he releases entirely on his own.
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boyomega
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boy_omega/
Bandcamp: https://boyomega.bandcamp.com/
Photo by Romana Stücklschweiger.
