Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hurgen schmurgen yurgen..., February 11, 2000
Scandinavian types The Wannadies first burst onto the indie-pop-rock scene with the excellent single You & Me Song, now annoyingly overused in countless TV advertisements. The album, Be A Girl, was disappointing, and this ensures the follow-up, Bagsy Me, is such a surprising delight. The singles are really catchy punk pop, Hit (also a stalwart of UK TV advertising) and the delectable Shorty. But it all comes together for one big bang at the end with the awesome 9 minutes of That's All - a truly great track and captures this criminally underrated band at their very best. Highly recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mr Choon always welcome, November 18, 2001
I'll start by saying that guitar music isn't really my thing. I'm more a vocal, deep house sort of fella. But at the same time I work hard at not letting my taste in music become too narrow. The thing that I'm always open to in all sorts of music is a good choon. And if you want good choons, The Wannadies can provide them in spades.This is playful, sunny guitar pop that rips along with a bracing tumble of musical ideas and eccentric but witty lyrics. "You And Me" song is the most well known Wannadies song (Thanks to the excellent "Romeo And Juliet" soundtrack) and really, it's quite indicative of their style. Is it their best song? Your call. But I'd challenge anyone to give this album a few listen without finding themselves getting all affectionate with at least a few of the tracks - and probably all of them. Because that's the thing with the Wannadies - they're really likeable. They write great songs, play them with an energetic pop guitar sound and you just find yourself smiling.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Made for dancing in your socks in the living room, December 8, 2004
Bagsy Me is pretty much the perfect power-pop album of all time. I guess most people, if they have heard of this Swedish band at all, know them from the "Romeo and Claire Danes" soundtrack, to which they contributed the 'You & Me song'. Its a nice song, a little sickly-sweet for my tastes. Its the other songs on this album that amaze me. If I didnt know what the singles were (through intense discography research whilst salivating uncontrollably), I wouldn't be able to guess which tracks they chose.
This album has an exuberant, fun sound. In places heavy, in others places whimsical, but always with a smile. And the lyrics reflect this - for example, in the blissed out fuzzrock intro 'Because', Par sings "I drink/I smoke/I tell a joke/Until I'm broke/Because I want to'. All the lyrics have a wonderful 'English As A Second Language' quality to them, which is just so damn charming. A charm that one won't find in the work of other successful Swedish bands (Roxette, Ace of Base - ew).
A major appeal of this band is the way they use Christine's sexy backing vocals. In 'Hit' (another song about going out drinking and having fun), there's this really cool echo thing she does, its hard to explain but its intelligent and playful song-writing, which not many bands are able to do simultaneously, if at all.
Any review of this album is incomplete without mentioning just how god-durn excellent the songs 'Someone Somewhere' and 'Shorty' are - Shorty is yet ANOTHER song that refers to hanging out in bars drinking. The fun-loving theme of this album actually extends across this bands entire career - "Yeah", and "Be A Girl" being prime examples.
Also deserving mention is the weirded-out epic endpiece, "That's All". At about 9 minutes long and with electronic elements, it is slightly out of character with the 3-5 minute poprock heaven of the rest of the album, but cripes, its good. And more of those slightly askew lyrics: "It's hard to be both yours and free/Its hard to solve every mystery/I'm still a kid on a bike you see/Just about to conquer spring with new-won speed". New-won speed? Heh.
I'm a big fan of sad music too - Radiohead, Nick Cave, all that stuff. But this album puts it all in perspective. So what if the world is a dump? Fun should still be everyone's prime directive. And Bagsy Me will send you well on the way. You don't know what fun is until you've heard a Swedish powerpop band playing a recorder solo.
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by The Wannadies 
