Lukas Graham is a Danish pop band that had a huge hit with its sad 2015 song “7 Years,” about growing up too fast, surviving, aspiring, thriving and making a family. It was sort of the 21st-century radio soul-pop version of Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle.”
You could be forgiven for thinking the members were from Detroit. Lukas Graham is further proof that the northern Europeans have internalized some of the emotional punch of American R&B and soul, fusing that with wistful melodies, uplift anthems and hit-factory production chops. There’s something endearingly innocent about some of Lukas Graham’s songs about confidence and loss. But the band is pretty worldly. Lead singer Lukas Forchhammer was born in a hippie commune in Copenhagen, a place where squatters and protesters and minor drug dealers all got along, basically governing themselves. (He’s also a classically trained vocalist who sang in the children’s choir starting at age 8, but they have state-funded education over there.) Who would have thought that the Danes would be sneaking in Utopian ideals into America through Motown-tinged radio pop?
Lukas Graham performs at The Dome at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre, 95 S. Turnpike Road, Wallingford, Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. 203-265-1501, livenation.com.
