Regular visitors to my blog will know that I have been championing the up-and-coming Swedish talent Erik Hassle for an awful long time now, and so I am delighted that his debut album, Pieces, has finally been released here in the UK!

As usual, I have compiled a song-by-song album ‘review’ / set of quick notes taken whilst I was listening through:

Bump In The Road

My absolute favourite Hassle song – loved it since first hearing it last year! One of my stand-out songs of 2009.

Hurtful

His first widely promoted single in the UK – unfortunately this track came in at a rather disappointing #59 in the UK charts, which I really think doesn’t do it justice! He’s been doing even more promo since then, so hopefully his next single will fare better!

Don’t Bring Flowers

Another favourite of mine, a funky baseline to it and a little bit Calvin Harris-esque in vocal, though with an over-familiar sounding synth sample (Hurtful anyone?).

Isn’t It Obvious

A nice little song with some awesome sweet/tender lyrics – but as is always the case, an album track I think.

The Thanks I Get

Piano track (I love a prominent piano!), very stripped back song, another nice album track. A little strange… it seems to be a rather bitter-sweet lyric, but there’s never the ‘explosion’ of emotion/music that I as a listener really wanted.

Standing Where You Left Me

I love the synths on this track – it has me wanting to dance from the outset. Edgier vocal, anthemic chorus – potential single?

Bitter End

(sorry, no YouTube!)

Nice ‘laid-back’ sounding track, I really like the sound of the bridge on the track.

First Time

This is a rather catchy song, another potential single I think. I love the guitar riff and the lyrics are rather sensual – ha!

Love Me To Pieces

Not too sure on this track, it seems to go off to one side, and then go off to another – quite a disruptive listening experience. Kudos for the (albeit brief) prominent violin notes about half way in!

Wanna Be Loved

A great 80s synth-pop sound to the verses of this track, and a nice simple catchy little chorus.

Back to Bed

Another guitar track that gives a fairly jarred listening experience, especially with the timing being a little strange on the track, but I think it’ll grow on me.

Amelia

Raw guitar track – love it a lot!! Really showcases his voice well.

All in all, I thought that this was a rather good first album (with Bump In The Road being the stand-out track). I hope that he is able to garner a lot more success as his career progresses – this chap is clearly very talented and it would be a travesty if he wasn’t able to break through into the UK charts and achieve some recognisable success!

For those who would like to have a proper listen to the album before purchasing a copy, it has just been made available to all membership tiers on Spotify.

Also well worth a visit is Erik’s official website –  especially as he’s quite ‘hands on’ with the online community/fan base.