Acid House Kings

Sweden’s no.1 pop band, Acid House Kings, was formed in 1991 by brothers Niklas and Johan Angergård and Joakim Ödlund. With immaculate taste in music stemming from a childhood of Elvis Presley, an almost complete set of Sarah singles and a 100% complete set of the Smiths singles, the Kings set out to define pop music.

Between 1992 and 2002, inspired by the 10 albums in 10 years from Felt, Acid House Kings released a trilogy of albums with one album released every fifth year. The first, “Pop, look & listen!” (1992) is maybe best left unmentioned. The Kings rate it 2.4 out of 5. On the second, “Advantage Acid House Kings” (1997), the aim was to make a Smiths-for-very-sunny-days sort of album. This sort of succeeded, and the Kings rate it 3.8 out of 5.

In 2001, the Kings built their own, now famous, Summersound Studios. Here, Acid House Kings could spend endless amounts of time to create the more sophisticated third album “Mondays are like Tuesdays and Tuesdays are like Wednesdays” (2002). Former guest vocalist and present sister-in-law Julia Lannerheim was introduced as a full-time member while Joakim Ödlund never showed up for recordings. It’s an easy, breezy, beautiful album and the kings rate it 4.2 out of 5.

Spurred by the quality of “Mondays…”, Acid House Kings set out to break their own five years between albums record, while still yet again refining the meaning of pop music. The fourth album, “Sing along with Acid House Kings” (2005), is to date the crown jewel in the Acid House Kings catalogue and a should-have-been-in-the-Guinness-World-Records-book since it included a karaoke-DVD (yes, a karaoke-DVD) with the first 2000 copies. The press release stated untrendy is the new trend, while the music showed an unusual combination of sophistication and catchiness. The Kings rate the album 4.4 out of 5.

In the spring of 2011 Sweden’s pop perfectionists no. 1 finally returned with the new album “Music Sounds Better with You”. The band first started the recording the album in the year 2008, but after three months and with more than half the album finished they decided to scrap it. Reason? They weren’t completely sure they would top their previous album and considered the songs too dark and not melodic enough for The Kings.

In the beginning of 2010 Acid House Kings returned with new inspiration, a brighter mood and numerous new songs. According to the band the new album is “Music Sounds Better with You”. It also got castanets on every single song. -“Music Sounds Better with You” will not re-define pop music, but it may very well define it, states Julia Lannerheim

Joakim Ödlund, Johan Angergård, Julia Lannerheim, Niklas Angergård

AHK, The Acid House Kings, アシッド・ハウス・キングス