Swedish singer-songwriter Sarah Assbring turned misery into ecstasy on her most recent outing as El Perro del Mar, 2006's self-titled album. "How Did We Forget?", the lead single from the sometime-Jens Lekman collaborator's forthcoming follow-up, From the Valley to the Stars, attempts a similar philosopher's-stone conversion. "It's easy, babe/ It's easy, babe/ It's easy, babe/ To make it hard," Assbring murmurs faintly, over and over-- as if these simple phrases are almost unbearably difficult to get past her lips, and words are all meaningless anyway. Then, like a boot to the pancreas, comes a three-part harmony refrain ("How did we forget about our love?") followed by an offhand, spine-rending "baby, baby." Baby.

Assbring's forlorn vocals remain a big part of El Perro del Mar's appeal, but her waltzing doo-wop backing is just as melancholy, as if the band's trying to remember something, too. With lightly chiming keyboards, a spark of electric guitar every couple of bars, a jazzily melodic bass line, soul-tinged horns, and some sort of string-like synths, "How Did We Forget?" might not come across on paper as intimate. Based on this stream, though, at least, the song seems to turns inward slightly from the last album's Phil Spector hugeness, closer to the urbane Flamingos swoon of the Postmarks. If that holds true for the new album, it could be an intriguing look for El Perro del Mar: There's still a party goin' on, only now it's lonelier than ever. (Thankfully, we're all invited.)

Stream:> El Perro del Mar: "How Did We Forget?"
[from the "How Did We Forget?" single and From the Valley to the Stars; due in Scandinavia 02/13/08 and 02/27/08, respectively, on Licking Fingers]