Photographer: Kate Gaughran.

Though not as endearingly weird or hooky as fellow countrymen Jens Lekman and Peter Bjorn & John, Emil Svanängen (who performs under the name Loney, Dear), proves on his coolly compelling third album, DEAR JOHN, that he belongs in the same sentence as his better-known Swedish indie pop compatriots. A host of indie influences are evident as the songs scroll past--"The City, The Airport," for example, begins like a lost Grandaddy demo, then swells into a Sufjan Stevens pocket symphony--but, when the music is as wide-open and breezy as it is here, this is a minor quibble. Melodies skim across layers of strummed guitars and well-placed synths, propelled by laptop beats--Svanängen's musical savvy is of the subtle kind. Still, DEAR JOHN is an intensely listenable, low-key triumph.