Sondre Lerche

Sondre Lerche's songs live in a world with Nick Drake's pink moons and the Flaming Lips' pink robots, where maladies have melodies and modern rock is just an ugly rumor. In Lerche's world, Highway to Heaven reruns are, apparently, still a big deal (check the title track's shout-out to "Michael Landon's grace") and the Beach Boys' barbershop ba-ba-bas never went out of style ("Wet Ground" and "Counter Spark" have plenty of pet sounds). It's a land where George is a bigger deal than John and Paul (and Ringo--but that goes without saying) and, occasionally, you have to use your second language to woo your first love. Which means you get weird wordplay ("When tears are pretzels pouring down each time/The sweetness is returning") and perfect poetry ("I take it you are afraid of everything I am and of some things I am not/A fear I share before I go to bed") in the same four minutes ("Track You Down"). But you also get an innocence that is so rare it's not even listed as an endangered species anymore. Evidently, Lerche's world is located somewhere in Norway, but it would like to keep an apartment in your heart. If you'll let it.