Swedish Singer/Songwriter and Gutiarist- Ulrik Munther

Hello Everyone!


Today i discovered another great singer/songwriter and guitarist. His name's Ulrik Munther hes from Sweden. The 17 year-old gifted singer/songwriter and guitarist was born on February 18, 1994 in Kungsbacka and Kullavick Sweden. Munther won Lilla Melodifestivalen 2009 and went on to MGP Nordic 2009 where he won with their song A typical day  .  He also performed at the Norwegian advertising gala Gull Fish. Han kom tvåa i Metro Music Challenge med sin låt Life . He came second in the Metro Music Challenge with his song Life. 2010 he got a record deal with Universal Music and released his debut album in 2011 .

Ulrich Munther at the Helsinborg Festival in 2011.

“I’m just a kid with a guitar in my hands,

but I know something that some can’t understand…”

Ulrik Munther (2011) his first album

1. Sticks And Stones

2. Boys Don't Cry

3. Kings Of Our Days

4. Moments Ago

5. Kill For Lies

6. Fake It

7. Alburn Road

8. The Box

9. Heroes In Defeat (Change Your Mind)

10. Life

11. Born This Way - Bonus Track (Lady Gaga's cover song)

Ulrik Munther's debut album

"An emotional experience…it’s about young love lost. The voice like a teen Bon Jovi with a bit of Leo Sayer thrown in. The beauty of a moment lost; beauty images: “the leaves were golden when I kissed your lips goodbye. You whispered ‘please remember me’ “. It’s a soft rock love ballad. You can hear the sweet sorrow of something so magic left behind on the album’s track 7: Alburn Road. The memory of a parting kiss, of love that opened a light..” and you thought I was lonely but I never felt that way back then”; there is still a hope of finding that magic again. This works for me, sending me into my own fond memories. This is the musical magic of Munther, but then…a new track -- a new experience!"

"Absence -- with the realization that it didn’t work from the start, “failing me right from the start”. Another love ballad in which the possibility of fulfilled love still waits, with another exquisite lyric line “moments ago I caught the scent of you. I closed my eyes and let it fill the room”.

Ulrik’s vocals are clear as a fjord, that adolescent rasp perfect --a fine song. Ulrik says he writes his best tunes when he’s feeling down or when he’s pumped about life and this seems to bear true. We are drawn into this guitar youth image. The songs speak of what moves him, in an unpretentious manner. No Elizabethan poetry, but real teen fears and difficulties.

Because it’s not easy to show affection in a tough environment. People can hurt you when you’re vulnerable. It’s a problem addressed on Track 5: Kill for Lies… “my fears never let me show I care”. Listen to the dark uncertainty in this song, the turmoil of a teenager trying to unlock the puzzle of emotions that can lead to ridicule and even suicide! The song is a searching anthem. Ulrik’s voice soars majestically through incredible self scrutiny, through the emptiness and pain he discovers… “my soul wages war with self-control, I know, but now I don’t understand the game I play, just the price that i pay- I’ll pay!” This song reaches out huge, the guitar and voice effective in searing us with its message. “Was it all only for dignity and pride that I’m left broken inside?” This is nicely mixed, the chorus has an accusing power and I love its honesty.

Track 11, Born This Way, is Ulrik’s cover of a Lady Gaga song, which Perez Hilton apparently spotted and posted on her web site. Because of it, Ulrik was brought to the attention of a wider community. It’s a simple untouched guitar-voice solo. Ulrik Munther falls into the long tradition of pop rock, with similarities to bands like Kent or Guns and Roses and influences from Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams. Yet, his sounds are pleasantly new and unique!!"

In Track 1′s, Sticks and Stones, a young rebel speaks from a snappy rock beat and it’s about self-assertion. He’s tired of ” doing what I should do, what other people say” and decides ” I think its time I break the rules you make and make some of my own”.

Still, these lost love laments seem to be the most popular of Munther’s songs. In the hit single found on Track 2, Boys Don’t Cry, we again hear a sadness, a regret over mistakes or about painful relationships. It’s an appeal for sympathy. It shares “have you ever tried to smile and hide your pain? I have.” “But boys don’t cry” i.e. They don’t show their feelings. The song builds up the chorus with big drums in the background, bells and then… Ulrik’s plaintive voice unfiltered at the end.

This theme of lost glory, of lost childhood, sounds out anew in King of Our Days , featuring a deeper Ulrik voice and a choppy keyboard beat. A very fine “uuh uuh” bridge soothes the memory, before the power of being full of youth asserts itself… “I’m trying to hold on to all this wisdom my whole life”.

“We were kings of little things. We never needed nothing much” -- a gem of a line! BUT “they said we needed to grow up”. To find that magic once more, the message is to be king of days again. “It’s all about right now”. This is a brazen vocal with a pounding chorus.

Fake It is another rocky tune about confusing emotions. It has a driving,a lmost punk beat , with nicely orchestrated chimes and drums that spur Ulrik’s voice onward. Again, it’s about pride and hiding real feelings… “Maybe it’s just my wounded pride, I’m at the point I can’t decide what I want. I’m running out of air”. It’s a song that reminds us: ULRIK MUNTHER is a young cruising rocker, cadillac style!"

Maybe now, with the realization that others are looking to him for inspiration, Ulrik presents us with a series of songs that show a developing life philosophy. The Box is a call to open our minds, to view things from different perspectives… “cause if we all break free from our routines, we’d be climbing up in every tree, just to get a better view of things, and you’ll be surprised”. This is a bit utopic for me, but still, it’s about social awareness. Ulrik doesn’t pretend to be a bard of wisdom, but he is proud of his own.

In Heroes Change Your Mind he sings about the loss of childhood admiration for role models and calls out to find alternative ways to succeed in life. “You’re humbled by your failures before they’re even made”. “Don’t just be a part of the system”. Again, a social concept. Track 10 features Life, one of the most stunning songs on the album, and it shows with what depth Ulrik is already writing. It starts with a lullaby piano and is a somber evaluation of what life is, a miracle to be lived to the fullest. The call is humble, but shows a growing social awareness that his music has brought him. ”I’m just a kid with a guitar in my hands, but i know something that some can’t understand”.

And there it is again, that picture of this young Swedish boy walking onto a glittering stage, into a studio where life is converted into art — art that can briefly touch us where we listen--with our dreamcatchers!

There is no doubt in my mind that this singer will give us more brilliant music, still more inspiration in the future, if he manages to stay true to his concept of honest lyric writing. The album is a fine creation with many vocal highlights. There was one mystery for me, well hidden at the end of the last bonus track--a song called The Scarecrow!! Maybe it’s an early Hallowe’en present from Ulrick, a spooky tale for an autumn night. It’s a song that shows we may yet hear completely different things from him.

This album is, in any case, no juvenile trick — but an acoustic treat!!

That familiar feeling …. you hear a song and the next thing you know it’s stuck in your head. In the next few days you lose count of the number of times you have listened to that song over and over again. The singer releases a new song. Maybe you were thinking that he could not do better than his last release, but he does and now you have a new song to adore.

Meet 17-year-old Ulrik Munther from Sweden -- gifted guitarist, songwriter and singer. When I first heard his original song - Boys Don’t Cry - I was blown away. Finally! A song with a meaning that I really enjoyed. It’s been a while since I’ve heard such a melodic song -- especially nowadays when so many young singers lean toward the much hyped R&B style, with beats and lyrics one can hardly tell apart (they all go: “I love her, she doesn’t love me. Love me, Love me, Love me”. Or “Let’s party “…etc ).