Say 'hello' to Say Lou Lou

Say Lou Lou are a pop group from (where else?) Sweden, with a touch of the ABBA about them (ie they look like a bit like Agnetha and Frida).

They've been bubbling under for a while now, but their new EP is so good I couldn't ignore it. For the uninitiated, here's Google tells us about them.

:: Say Lou Lou are twin sisters Miranda and Elektra Kilbey, who shared a bedroom until they were 16.

:: They were born in 1991, around the time Donnie NKOTB was arrested for setting fire to a hotel room.

:: Miranda is the older sister, by four minutes.

:: "I'm a bit scrawnier," Miranda told Vogue. "Elektra is a bit more curvy."

:: More importantly for identification purposes, Miranda is the brunette and Elektra is the blonde.

:: Do you think they resemble Agnetha and Frida from Abba, only with a better wardrobe? (Hint: yes, you do).

:: Their dad is Steve Kilbey, from Aussie rock group The Church.

:: No, us neither.

:: Steve divorced the girls' mother when they were young, and they were shuttled between Sweden and Australia as they grew up.

:: Consequently, their music is "not one hundred percent Scandi-pop, and it's not one hundred percent acoustic Australian," they told Soma Magazine. "We draw inspiration from the dynamic differences, such as the different cultures, and the lightness and darkness in both." Blimey.

:: They named their band after their "mean old aunt", according to Interview magazine.

:: Originally, though, they were called Saint Lou Lou, until some pesky copyright lawyers got involved.

:: Alternative names they may have considered* include Sane Lou Lou; Seine Lou Lou; Cyan Lou Lou; Stain Lou Lou; Sit Ubu Sit and Primal Scream.

:: Their debut single Maybe You came out earlier this year on dance label Kitsune and caused all of Tumblr to have a swoon, like delicate ladies in a Jane Austen novel.


:: Critics call this sound "dream pop".

:: According to the girls, that means "the layering of sweet, harmonious pop with a dreamy and spacey soundscape".

:: Since Maybe You came out, the twins have set up their own label and started working with top drawer pop merchants Hannah Robinson and Richard X. "He is a pop genius!" they note, wisely.

:: The girls "think of their songs as narratives" and approach them "like writing the script for a film", whatever that means.

:: They have also invented a drinking game around The Police's Roxanne.

:: Say Lou Lou's new EP is called Better In The Dark. It comes with a great "A-side" (track one) and an equally great "B-side" (track two) called Beloved.

:: It is out on 25 November, but you can hear both tracks now, with your ears, by pressing the triangular shaped buttons on the embedded media players placed directly below this passage of text.

* Did not actually consider

Tweet