Fredrik - Na Na Ni

The Kora Records

It’s obvious from the first moments of Na Na Ni that Fredrik is a Swedish band. For some reason, it’s usually artists from the far North who are able to make me feel a certain way, which is both content and slightly sad at once.

The album’s opening track, “Black Fur,” is nearly three minutes of melodic, jingly, indie pop that inspires you both to sing along and to lay back on your bed and stare out the window at the fall landscapes. “Evil and I” is a beautifully sad little folk tune, and the closest Fredrik comes to sounding like Iron & Wine, which is a good thing. “Angora Sleepwalking” is a bit more ambitious. With its featured cello line and haunting melody, it sounds like something Belle & Sebastian might write if they were less twee.

My favorite song on the album is the title track, which brings together all of the elements that have worked so well throughout the record. It has a melody that gets stuck in your head, possesses charming yet complicated instrumentation, and emits the feeling that this music is building to something huge. And they put it all together without a single lyric other than the titular chant.

On Fredrik’s website, there is an annotated guide to the album, and he explains Na Na Ni as such: “The idea of the [singing] well is partly gathered from Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as the emptiness that builds new ideas.” That’s exactly the sentiment you get from the song, and the album in general. If that intrigues you at all, check out Na Na Ni, a perfect record for these waning fall days.

Review by Dana Reinoos