Blithe

Blithe is a Swedish indie group formed in Umeå in 1990 by singer-songwriter Emil Odling, guitarist Mattias Norlander, bassist Nils Forsberg and drummer Johan Nilsson. The group develops from the Swedish alternative scene but is influenced more by American independent guitar rock than by the sixties-influenced sound associated with other Swedish bands of the period, drawing on acts such as The Pixies, Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr.

History

Blithe builds a reputation gradually in Sweden before releasing albums there in 1992 and 1994. Its second album, Head is Mighty, is later reissued in the United States by the North Carolina label Alias, which signs the group and brings the album out there in 1996. The group then releases Verse Chorus Verse in 1997.

Style and context

Norlander also plays with Komeda, and Blithe sits within the wider Swedish indie and alternative landscape of the 1990s. Its recorded work is associated with indie pop and pop as well as indie rock, with female-vocalist tagging also attached to the act.