Pitchfork

Love Is Not Pop cover photo by Johanna Hedborg

A savvy artist knows when to change things up, when to lay in the cut, and when to get some new publicity photos. We weren't the only ones lukewarm on the last El Perro Del Mar album, so we're happy that Ms. Perro Del Mar, Sarah Assbring, is taking a chance with her waif-is-me shtick.

Her new seven-song mini-album, titled Love Is Not Pop and recorded with one half of Balearic funk duo Studio, Rasmus Hägg, is a welcomed mini-curve ball. The set will come out in Sweden on April 1 via Licking Fingers (U.S. release date coming soon) and the new song "Change of Heart" is currently streaming at the EPDM MySpace. She's got a few bleached-out new publicity shots, too.

In a confessional post on her website, Assbring goes into detail about the making of Love Is Not Pop, and reveals details behind two more tracks on the record: a cover of Lou Reed's "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask and "It Is Something (To Have Wept)", inspired by River Phoenix, sometime Calvin Klein photog Bruce Weber and poet G.K. Chesterton. She also mentions Hägg is working on a solo album featuring all sorts of live instrumentation and refers to her work with the producer as "magical." Well, shucks.

EPDM will take part in a couple Morrissey tribute nights in Sweden at the end of this month, and she has a few local gigs lined up for March and April.

Love Is Not Pop:

01 Gotta Get Smart
02 Change of Heart
03 L Is for Love
04 Let Me In
05 Heavenly Arms
06 It Is Something (To Have Wept)
07 A Better Love

El Perro Del Mar:

02-25 Malmö, Sweden - Debaser (A Night with Morrissey Tribute Concert)
02-26 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser (A Night with Morrissey Tribute Concert)
03-27 Kållered, Sweden - Apelgårdens Kyrka
04-04 Göteborg, Sweden - Stadsteaterns Foajé
04-22 Malmö, Sweden - Debaser
04-23 Stockholm, Sweden - Fasching