Review: What's Life Without Losers by Mikhael Paskalev

Everybody wants to feel good, right? Mikhael Paskalev certainly thinks so, gifting fans with What’s Life Without Losers – a record that quashes any excuses not to be happy. How, you ask? Well, there’s no early morning exercise involved or any dieting. Nope, just sit back and let the romanticism of the album whisk you away on a summertime adventure.

After winning over his native Norway and captivating Australians with his heartfelt ballad ‘I Spy’ (ranking in at #75 in the recent Triple J Hottest 100), Paskalev finally presents his debut LP to our shores.

The record opens with ‘What’s Life Without Losers’, a bouncy, birds-and-bees love tale filled with warm retro vibes and cute backing lyrics.

With enough energy to cause a swelling sensation in your stomach, along with hand clapping and feet shuffling, it’s easy to be enticed by the lyrics, “Let’s live the life, let’s go out and jive” on ‘Jive Babe’. Paskalev swoons his way into listeners’ hearts with the euphoric summer anthem.

The album then guides through a series of slower jams, causing the charisma and the energy of the openers to fade.

That’s not to say the middle of the album isn’t without its notable tracks. ‘Woman’ tells a yarn of a young girl’s struggles with facing adulthood, and there’s also the breezy sway of ‘Brother’. ‘I Spy’ invokes a sense of freedom with a folky guitar riff enthusing the listener back to a sense of melancholic joy.

As a whole, the record showcases a cocktail of pop and rock infused with country licked acoustics and soft lyrics. It really does create a dreamy and yet dream crushing aura, but perhaps that is the genius of it all. A good first effort and one to keep an eye on.