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What is it with these self-anointed Scandinavian rock gods? You

Back in the early 90s Nicke Andersson was the drummer in Swedish death metal band Entombed. Then in 1994 he formed garage rock band the Hellacopters. They broke up a couple of years ago and now he’s back yet again with Imperial State Electric, a power pop band.

The album starts out in a bubbly 80s mode but after four tracks it goes back to the 60s and The Beatles circa A Hard Day’s Night. Thereafter it switches back and forth at will.

Imperial State Electric may well be a band. In fact they’re playing gigs – including a support slot with Axl’s Guns N’ Roses tribute band – so who knows where that may lead? But it should be noted that Andersson plays most of the instruments on most of the tracks. And the only photo is of him, looking like a power-pop version of Lemmy. It figures.

Hugh Fielder has been writing about music for 47 years. Actually 58 if you include the essay he wrote about the Rolling Stones in exchange for taking time off school to see them at the Ipswich Gaumont in 1964. He was news editor of Sounds magazine from 1975 to 1992 and editor of Tower Records Top magazine from 1992 to 2001. Since then he has been freelance. He has interviewed the great, the good and the not so good and written books about some of them. His favourite possession is a piece of columnar basalt he brought back from Iceland.