On its face, a song that uses the age-old conflict between Israel and Palestine as a metaphor for a tumultuous relationship seems insensitive at best. But I think part of art’s power is taking potentially uncouth ideas and rendering them into something beautiful and even transcendent. Such is the case when Mattias Olsson (aka Nanook) and Karin Engstrand cry out in the midst of their conflict, “So Israel and Palestine look up/See the star shines with a northern light/Jerusalem’s here, so hold your fire.”

They could be singing about the relationship between two people, or between people and the city, or between the city and the natural landscape. But that cry for peace strikes at something deeply human. And the fact that it’s delivered via breezy indie folk/pop makes it all the more so.