**1/2 This Perfect Day

C-60

(550 Music)

And the Swedish pop bands keep on coming. Actually, this Scandinavian quintet have little in common with Swedes like the Cardigans, Cinnamon, or Komeda. First of all, lead singer Mats Eriksson is male. Second, the band's brittle guitars and wiggly synth lines are more in the vein of American new-wavers Weezer and the Rentals. Humor and hooks drive TPD's best tunes -- the catchy "Fishtank" and the delightful kiss-off to one-hit wonders "In Two Weeks You Will Be Forgotten." But Eriksson's attempts at an American alterna-rock accent make him sound as if he had a speech impediment; and though the lyrics to "Dolphins" ("We're dolphins in the sea/My dolphin girl and me/We swim from town to town/Two dolphins on the run") are goofy in the extreme, he sings them with what appears to be the utmost seriousness. Maybe this is supposed to be a joke, but the laughs get lost in translation.

-- Mac Randall