After a stretch of albums as the leader of second-string Swede popsters
Edson, singer/songwriter
Pelle Carlberg struck out for a solo career with 2005's
Everything. Now!, which continued on the same low-key, moody path his former band had followed. However, something seems to have changed between that album and its follow-up,
In a Nutshell: by some distance
Carlberg's best album so far,
In a Nutshell is an inventive, tuneful collection of pop songs in a variety of moods and styles, with a quirky sense of humor that occasionally recalls
Carlberg's Swedish compatriot
Jens Lekman.
Carlberg's rueful lyrics -- song titles include the downright
Morrissey-like "Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls" and "I Love You, You Imbecile" -- are, as on his earlier albums, matched to largely minor-key tunes. But
In a Nutshell has more detailed and varied arrangements than was
Carlberg's wont before, with the result that "Crying All the Way to the Pawnshop" and "Showercream and Onions" echo the perkier side of
Belle & Sebastian, and "Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Tomorrow" is a reverb-heavy reverie for solo acoustic guitar and voice that's closer in sound and spirit to, say,
Neutral Milk Hotel. The increased sense of humor and more varied lyrical tenor combines with the catchy tunes to make
In a Nutshell an immediately likeable bit of semi-twee Swedish indie pop. ~ Stewart Mason