Photo by Per Vikström
The Swedish electro-pop outfit the Radio Dept. scored a minor hit with “Heaven’s On Fire” in 2010, a sleepy love song with a foot in the club and its head in the clouds. The band has long approached dance music from this kind of oblique angle, but last year’s Running Out Of Love is the Radio Dept.’s biggest shift yet. As the title makes pretty damn clear, this isn’t more of the same loopy romanticism. It’s a political record, staring hard at current events like the woman depicted in the album art. “Swedish Guns” sheds light on the Swedish arms industry, which has quietly spread its reach across the world. It’s an understandably cold track, but in true Radio Dept. fashion, the band can’t help but let in a little light.
“Swedish Guns” appears on Running Out Of Love, out now. The Radio Dept. play live in our Studio 1A today at 2 p.m. and tonight at the Mohawk.
–Art Levy // host, Sunday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., producer, My KUTX
