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Sweden. Again Sweden. As long as I
live I will never be able to discover where the secret lies but the
amount of outstanding progacts coming from Sweden is no longer to be
controlled. Carptree’s self-titled debut already illustrated that
the duo of Flinck and Westholm wanted to deliver a ‘different’ kind
of progressive rock, more mainstream, more with both feet in the
contemporary world, more flirting with accessible parameters. On
this, their second album, they use what they call the ‘No future
orchestra’, a collective of friends they have accumulated through
other Swedish acts. The result is that they can now arrange their
songs in every possible direction. The opening song already proves
this. ‘Superhero’ is indeed a majestic song with not only a very
catchy melody but also a very strong and powerful arrangement.
With or without a huge arrangement,
the Craptree material is strong enough to stand on itself. Take
‘Father’s house’ which in fact is only build around voice and piano
but which can then benefit from ingeniously placed orchestral
sections. In a way it makes me think of part of a musical where you
have a multitude of different atmospheres which together create a
special result. In the choir section of ‘Father’s house’ this
atmosphere gets very close to the eerie work of Devil Doll.
Everything is down to the vocals of Niclas Flinck who has a very
‘flexible’ kind of voice, very theatrical, emphasising certain
passages in order to leave behind exclamation marks on it’s way as
the music evolves. These vocals are the spine around which the
Carptree body is moulded as if a statue has been created which will
stand the test of time in whatever weather conditions it is placed,
whether sun or rain.
As said before this band tries to
emulate a new form of progressive rock by also using unconventional
instruments. Take the crafty rhythm section in ‘Host vs Craft’ which
once again contains very catchy hooks next to the perfect balance
between instruments to turn this song into yet another highlight
sporting some fantastic synth solo’s. You have people who need
plenty of arrangement and plenty of chords in order to impress and
you have people who only need a blank canvas in order to impress.
Such is the beauty of ‘Watching the clock’ which comes like a breath
of fresh air by means of fragile piano playing backed with the right
dose of strings resulting in a modern waltz. Nestling in between
Devil Doll and Pain of Salvation is the devastating intro for ‘Into
the never to speak of’ before the song sails towards acoustic
simplicity before picking up where they left off in the first place.
With ‘Flesh’ the band approaches the unique character of Peter
Gabriel combining an accessible composition with a meaningful
content. Once again ‘Lie down’ contains a very strong catchy melody,
for sure one of the main trademarks of the duo.
A
small negative point I find is the fact that the booklet means next
to nothing. I would have loved to see more information about this
project as obviously a lot of preparation has gone into the creation
of this masterpiece. But maybe that’s just what our duo wants to
achieve : to leave things open for whatever kind of interpretation
regardless of what the endresult should be. They most certainly have
placed Carptree more firmly on the map and it is hoped that they see
the possibility to expand this project into a band which is capable
to deliver live shows in the future. It would be even better if
someone out there in the big wide world sees enough potential in
this work to turn it into the musical it deserves to be ! For the
time being “Superhero” will most certainly be ending very high in
this year’s polls. One of my recent favourite discoveries ! |
