Jimmy Monell has spent much of his career making other people sound more certain of themselves. His credits move between bright Swedish pop, electronic rock, remixes, live production and the harder edge of EBM. The instruments might change, but his concern with rhythm does not.
Monell first reached a wide audience as one half of Adel & Shootingstar with Adel Dahdal, producing and recording The Sounds’ debut album, Living in America. He has since worked with Roxette, Per Gessle, Rein, Kite, and Majestoluxe, among others. His closest musical partnership, however, is with his partner in life, Emma Nylén. They began producing EMMON records together in 2010, after Monell had mixed an album by Nylén’s band, Paris. Nylén described him to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK as the person who could take over an idea, renew it, and strengthen the feeling she wanted to convey. More recently, she has credited him as the “sound wizard” responsible for EMMON’s beats, bass and soundscapes, while she concentrates on structure, melody and lyrics.
That division is not rigid. Their songs pass back and forth; sometimes beginning with a Monell loop and sometimes with a Nylén demo. The shared method is less about expensive machinery than finding the right pressure. These ten recordings show Monell as producer, programmer, mixer, arranger and collaborator.
10. Per Gessle – Hey Mr DJ (Won’t You Play Another Love Song) (Jimmy Monell Treatment)
Per Gessle’s original has the breezy confidence expected from a songwriter who knows exactly where a chorus belongs. Monell’s treatment pushes the song towards the club without flattening its pop shape. The beat is firmer and the surfaces are cleaner, but the melody is still allowed to smile.
The remix appeared alongside two further Monell treatments of “I Never Quite Got over the Fact That the Beatles Broke Up” on editions of Son of a Plumber. It is commercial work carried out with a deft touch.
9. Roxette – The Rox Medley (A Remix Medley)
A medley can easily turn into a souvenir stall. “The Rox Medley” avoids that by treating Roxette’s catalogue as material rather than scripture. Hooks arrive, collide and disappear before nostalgia has time to settle.
Monell is credited as arranger, mixer and producer on this 2006 recording from one of Sweden’s biggest exports. His task was not to improve songs already built for radio, but to find a new current between them. The joins carry as much weight as the choruses.
8. The Sounds – Living in America
The Sounds arrived with skinny ties, sharp guitars and enough new-wave colour to make the early 2000s briefly look less beige. “Living in America” has the title and attitude of a novelty hit, but the arrangement is too controlled to be disposable. Keyboards flash at the edges while the rhythm section keeps the song moving in a straight line.
The album was recorded in Stockholm and produced by Adel Dahdal and Monell under the Adel & Shootingstar name. Its mix of rock energy and synthetic detail became the group’s passport. Monell’s later work would grow darker, but the instinct for a decisive entrance was already there.
7. EMMON – Distance
Nylén had previously controlled every stage of EMMON’s records herself before bringing in Monell as co-producer for the third album, Nomme. “Distance” was the first single from that period and the first clear view of what the partnership could do.
The song retains EMMON’s melodic electro core, but its shadows are deeper and the rhythm has more weight. Nylén’s voice remains cool and close to the surface. Monell builds the room around it without crowding her.
6. Majestoluxe – Money Mules
Conny Fornbäck’s Majestoluxe makes industrial music from office systems, financial anxiety and the grey language of institutional power. “Money Mules” is suitably severe. Its repetition does not hypnotise so much as tighten the restraints.
Monell mixed and mastered the whole of Wretched Conditions. The album has plenty of abrasion, but the elements remain distinct. Percussion hits cleanly, voices occupy their own hostile space, and the low end does not become fog. Misery benefits from good administration.
5. Kite – Don’t Take the Light Away (Mr Monell Remix)
Kite songs are built on emotional scale. Nicklas Stenemo can make a small phrase sound like it has been carried across several mountain ranges. Monell does not compete with that quality – he gives it heavier machinery to elevate the feeling.
The remix hardens the lead track for the dancefloor. The kick acquires more authority, the bass darkens and the arrangement moves with less hesitation. The original ache survives the treatment. It just arrives wearing boots.
4. Kite – Heartless Places (Live at Kite on Ice)
Kite’s performance at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena placed electronic pop in the middle of an ice rink, surrounded by skaters, lights, and the kind of logistical problems best avoided by sensible people. Monell was part of the musical production and played synthesizer at centre ice.
“Heartless Places” holds together despite the scale around it. The synth layers widen the song without softening its outline. Nicklas Stenemo’s vocal remains the focal point, while the electronics rise beneath it in measured stages. Spectacle is useful when someone remembers the arrangement.
3. Randolph & Mortimer – The Incomplete Truth (Kite & Mr Monell Remix)
“The Incomplete Truth” combines industrial and rave motifs in a rework of the title track from Randolph & Mortimer’s second album. The musical project of Sam Evans – like stainless steel knives and Human League, a Sheffield export – Randolph & Mortimer takes its name from the rich commodities traders in the movie, Trading Places.
2. 2Heartz – Sorrow
A kind of electronic supergroup, made up of Jean-Luc de Meyer (Front 242, Lederman de Meyer) and Daniel Myer (Haujobb, Architect, Liebknecht, Covenant), 2Heartz features mixing and production contributions from Monell. There is also a vocal contribution from Emmon embedded in the track. It sits in Monell’s discography as an example of his quiet role sharing the sounds of other artists and his musical versatility.
1. EMMON – Shades of Blue
“Shades of Blue” looks back to the alternative music that formed Nylén as a teenager, when Depeche Mode, The Cure and The Smiths were fixtures on her Sony Discman. There is no attempt to reproduce a museum version of the 1980s in this track; but the sounds and feelings are drawn upon with love and as signs of respect.
Monell’s importance to the EMMON sound is clearest here. The metallic percussion and sampled atmosphere recall Depeche Mode’s palette from Construction Time Again, while the bass carries the song with quiet force. Around them, Nylén’s melody brings vulnerability without loosening the structure. One contemporary account describes Monell as every bit as important to EMMON’s music as its official creator. “Shades of Blue” makes the case without argument.
