Sally Shapiro Indulges in 'Guilty Pleasures'

On their first album, 'Disco Romance,' the Swedish duo of Johan Agebjorn and Sally Shapiro displayed an overt love for European-inspired dance music, fusing '80s disco-pop and electronica -- and the album title wasn't lost on anyone. The reaction they received was fair and honest. "People called it my guilty pleasure," Shapiro tells Spinner. Such was the impetus for their follow-up album, the not so curiously named 'My Guilty Pleasure.' "We think this is music that you don't want to say out loud that you like, because it's really sugary and sweet," she says, "but you like when you're home alone and can listen to it."

In this instance, Shapiro and Agebjorn might be a tad on the self-deprecating side. Indeed, 'My Guilty Pleasure' has its moments of refined cheesiness but Shapiro says this time, the music is "more varied in style." They bounce from the '80s inspired synth sounds of 'Moonlight Dance' to a slower, more bass-driven cover of Nicolas Makelberge's 'Dying in Africa,' demonstrating that this isn't embarrassing to admit you like at all.

"I like that song very much," she says of 'Africa.' "It feels like when you know you're in a position where people somewhere else have it worse, because you at least have food and shelter and not war around you, but still you don't feel very happy. It's a feeling that you shouldn't say but it's still like that- you know you're really spoiled in a way, so that's why we chose that."

That said, the lead single 'Miracle' was inspired by Shapiro's own guilty pleasure. "We wanted to do a track that sounded like a musical," she says. "I'm very fond of musicals. You could say those are my guilty pleasures." She also revealed another guilty pleasure that seemingly has no bearing on this recording: Hugh Grant films.

'My Guilty Pleasure' is out Aug. 25 on Paper Bag Records.