Rewind. Tiny Fighter

In this new decade I have written a few times on the Swedish-Australian duo Tiny Fighter operating out of Sweden. Listening to the first songs on its new album, Rewind, I had to look again. Did I file another album in Tiny Fighter's name? I even went back to the band's previous release. Yes, Tiny Fighter definitely played far poppier tunes. Undoubtedly written in happier times when it dreamed of going out into the world with its debut album. If so, Rewind is the reflection of the past year, far more serious, a bit sadder. "To be able, to be free", Therese Karlsson sings in the opening song, 'You Said To Me'. It may well be my theory is substantiated by this line.

Rewind is a giant leap forward. Away from the poppy sound of 'Going Home'. Away from light-heartedness. Away from what Tiny Fighter stood for. Towards a band that wants to be taken even more seriously. Reading that a metal producer, Thomas 'Plec' Johansson, co-produced Rewind, makes it even more incredulous. The music on Rewind has absolutely nothing to do with metal. The sound is of a dreamy quality and is so spaciously mixed. It feels as if I could park my car between the individual instruments, without feeling for a second that anything is not in its right place. It gives Karlsson all the room in the world to sing with ease and suppleness.

On several songs the piano takes total precedence as the instrument leading the song. This changes when a more pop oriented tune, if sad and melancholy, takes over, like 'If I Could See'. Here the electric guitar does come in. It certainly is an exception on this album. Tiny Fighter focuses on ballads, somewhere in between the soft-voiced ballads of old and classic rock ballads. Though closer to the former in sound, it has nothing to do with the oochie-smoochie topics these ballads are about. The lyrics give some spike to the softer songs that certainly move into dreampop territory.

Promo photo: Marco Engman

Looking closer at the tracklist of Rewind you will notice it is not a fully new album. Some songs are an "acoustic version", 'Happier' is sung in another language, Therese Karlsson's mother tongue Swedish. True connoisseurs will recognise another song as well. 'Sprinter' is an acoustic cover of Mackenzie Scott's (Torres) 'Sprinter'. All this doesn't take anything away from the strength of Rewind. Tiny Fighter has created a fully new work that has a total feel all on its own. This feel includes a modesty based on strength. The band knows it has the songs to completely convince, maybe even more so then with 'Going Home'.

By working with a host of instruments, e.g. horns, strings and woodwinds, besides the already mentioned piano, a rich musical world is created in which Theresa Karlsson's voice is a like a fish in water. All the nuances she can put in her voice come out in the strongest possible ways.

I am listening to another album that never would have been there without Covid, and yes, writing just before the next total lockdown, who knows it is there when this post is published in a few days, I would trade it all in without a second of hesitation, Rewind is one of the beautiful things the world has won because of Covid. Unfortunately this is the truth as well. It brings the best out in some people and Therese Karlsson and Tim Spelman are definitely among these.

Wout de Natris