Verket’s dreamy shoegaze pop sounds a lot like The Radio Dept. with a bit more of a rock bravado.  Or The Jesus & Mary Chain if you wanna get historical.  It’s catchy, it builds, and I’m into it.

Verket is a “new band from a middle sized city somewhere in central Sweden.”  Their new single “Jag kom, jag såg, jag förlorade,” or “I came, I saw, I lost,” was released by A West Side Fabrication.

True to recent Swedish practices, the band has very scarce bio info.  I wrangled this pic from an album of generic-looking snapshots of middle Sweden.

Lately it feels like The Knife is being used as a biz model for Swedish bands as they replace public personae with an edgy, mysterious, masked brand.  Do music listeners enjoy solving branding puzzles?  I wonder if fans ever feel let down when anony musicians get unmasked.  There’s also a risk that this scheme will start coming across as a gimmick.  Or maybe it’s meant to.

This song is great, regardless, and I look forward to more releases by Verket.

Visit Verket on MySpace or at their label, A West Side Fabrication

Get “Jag kom, jag såg, jag förlorade” on iTunes, 7digital, or Klicktrack

Tags: A West Side Fabrication, Swedish music, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Knife, The Radio Dept., Verket