Who wouldn’t like The Sounds? Probably some lame indie-rock snob who’d say the band is too mainstream and commercial. Granted, The Sounds’ sounds could be placed within the pop category—yet at the end of the day, to me, this fivesome packs a mean punch. The Sounds third studio album, out today—Crossing the Rubicon—surprised me with its level of greatness. Its prolific and heartfelt lyrics, layers and layers of synth, and high-pitched guitar melodies belted through my speakers last week. (Ahhh, advance copies.) I knew I’d probably like it, but man, it just went to another plateau of great.

Maja Ivarsson, whom I’ve only met once or twice through the years, was kind enough to chat over the phone with me while currently touring with No Doubt; she was in Arizona at the time of our conversation. Funny enough, Ms. Gwen Stefani—Maja’s bleach-blond-doppelgänger—was so close to Maja, she couldn’t really gush about Gwen when I asked. “Gwen’s standing right behind me with her kids. I just love her, but can’t talk too loud!”
I told Maja how much I fell in love with the first four tracks and couldn’t stop listening to each song and its lyrics; it’s all about a woman singing about love lost and late-night meetings with boys. Surprising me yet again, Maja quipped, “But we all contribute and wrote the lyrics together. I didn’t write them alone. Now, with our third album, we’re all so in love with each other, it was easy to write the lyrics together, because we knew when each of us went through those situations. Like I remember when my bandmate felt that way, because I was there! I saw him go through it!”
At the end of our chat, I told Maja about my conversation with Asa at Marc Jacobs. Maja’s enthusiasm was about the same as Asa’s, “Ohhhhhhh, I loooooooooveeeeeee Marc Jacobs’ clothes! I heard he might dress me for a show! Ohhhh that would be so nice. Thank you Jessica for mentioning our interview to Asa. You have to be my guest when we perform in New York at David Letterman!”
What did I do? Absolutely nothing—just my dutiful task of hailing an incredible queen of rock n’ roll who just crossed the Rubicon of music. I’m sure Caesar would be proud.