One of the saddest pieces of band news late last year was the demise of our favourite Swedish country duo Fifth Floor, and having just accepted that they were no more we get 2 little glimpses of what might have been in the shape of 2 singles culled from their final acoustic session.
Always good value for money live and with a recorded output that was able to balance between the light hearted on one hand while equally adept at delivering songs with great tension and pathos.
These are acoustic demos that are probably not really meant to be reviewed however they are too good to let slip by without an acknowledgement.
First up, a song that immediately established itself in their live set from it's very first outing, "You're Still Ugly ( With My Glasses Off)" could never fail with it's title and opening line of "I've seen some shit in my days". It's a withering put down to a number of folk that we've all met in our time "You can look like a dream and still be an asshole" even including the current American President. It's full prescient cutting observations attached to a bouncy country tune and immediately transports you back to seeing them live with a broad grin on your face - great stuff and fantastic that it's now available.
Showing the other side of the character is "Before The Last Song Plays", is a an example of the brutal awkward honesty that they occasionally laced their songs, with an opening couplet of "I see you moving, get out of your seat, to avoid getting stuck here, stuck here with me". Even in this acoustic version there is so much promise, of what was to come that there is a sense of loss that we never got to see it realised.
Moa Bergström & Matilda Christiansson, thanks once again for all the good times, and next time you are digging around your demo box see if you can find a version of "The 100" you can release :-)