Astrid Swan (Finland) – Special Ones (sample track from the re-released album Poverina)

Earlier this year we had a special video feature on Finland’s Astrid Swan who notified her intention to reissue her debut album ‘Poverina’, which turns 20 this year, by releasing a previously unseen video for the track ‘They Need You If They Think You Love Them’.

It was also made known that the album re-master, which was available from 5^th September, would feature one unreleased track from the ‘Poverina’ sessions – ‘Special Ones’ – a song Astrid Swan revisited years later on the Teosto-palkinto winning album ‘From The Bed and Beyond’.

We went into some detail about how the album came about so we’ll focus on that track here.

It always fascinates me to turn back the clock and listen to what an artist was producing a couple of decades ago. Events move very quickly in the music business these days and styles come into and go out of fashion rapidly.

Just like Jose Mourinho. The Special One. He knows all about it. And he knows he’s past his prime.

There is nothing dated about Astrid Swan though. And while it may be 20 years old this song is timeless. Every country has a female artist that transcends the passing of time to remain as relevant in their later careers as they ever were at the start and in Finland’s case I’d have to put my money on Ms Swan.

Just as I would, under different circumstances, on Kate Bush and Alanis Morissette. And somehow Astrid manages to sound like a hybrid of them here, and with more than a hint of Amy Studt in there as well (Google her).

‘Special Ones’ has actually been rewritten from its first version, which didn’t make the cut onto the original album after she lost confidence in it at the death.

It was conceived in one night after she awoke from her slumbers and wrote it on the spot, which itself caused her some consternation as she had never previously done that, prompting her to regard it as something of a bastard child.

It was too poppy she thought (it has the catchiest chorus I’ve heard this year) at a time when she was being recognised by the cognoscenti as the new arty alternative writer on the block.

It was rewritten in 2015 as she began to interpret it in a different way and ended up on her album ‘From the Bed and Beyond’.

10 years later it is back, in its original form but still stuck on the end of the album like an afterthought.

Of course such afterthoughts often turn out to be the highlight of an album and I’ll tell you this – if I was hearing ‘Special Ones’ for the first time 20 years ago I’d put on my velour tracksuit pronto, jump on my BMX and head downtown to Fred’s Record Shop to buy the cassette, tout de suite.

From the charming opening and repeating piano notes through that chorus to the plaintive ending, it’s ear candy from start to finish.

She says, “I don’t mind being pop, I don’t avoid clarity and straightforward hooks. I also don’t hate being complex. It’s all in this OG version.”

I’ll second that.

Astrid will play special ‘Poverina’ album shows at G Livelab in Tampere and Helsinki on the 17^th and 19^th of September respectively, supported by KO:MI

Find her on:

Website: https://astridswan.blogspot.com/