Elias & the Wizzkids

The best music for me supersedes genre and classification: anything that'll evoke good memories and hope and truth in me is worth my time, no matter what the setting or backdrop. Elias & the Wizzkids (MySpace) is one such band. I don't even want to describe these Swedish chaps with constraining words like swing and folk and soul (all of which would be accurate though, I guess). They're just special and precious, and that should be enough.

Hold on to Elias & the Wizzkids. The four-piece sings charming songs about charming things with charming similes and metaphors with charming harmonies and harmonicas and driving bass lines to accompany the whole production. An utterly charming and endearing band, to say the least.

This stuff sounds like it's decades old, maybe a lost artifact from the singin' folksy 60s or something. The cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall" is spectacular. It's a refreshing update -- in a very old way -- of the rather bland song (sorry Gallagher fans). I can't get enough of "The Dance," and "Autumn Leaves" is just so, so sweet ... I just want to lay on my bed and curl up, listening to it for the whole day.
Coming from me, such complimentary words are rare: I'm not one to be taken in by something as soft and pretty as Elias & the Wizzkids' music, but I've become a sucker for these guys.
Enough? Dig in and buy The Dance EP!

Elias & the Wizzkids - The Dance
Elias & the Wizzkids - Wonderwall
Elias & the Wizzkids - Autumn Leaves