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This is one of
the most peculiar albums I’ve ever reviewed. It’s a compilation of
songs from a band that never even existed! Everything comes from the
(sometimes twisted) mind of Tomas Bodin, the keyboard player from
The Flower Kings. Swedish Family is a fictive band who seems to have
released 10 albums and was top of the bill in the Swedish
progressive rock scene. And now you get a compilation from this 10
non-existing albums.
Don’t worry,
you’re not really deceived, because the album really exists and the
music reflects the progressive rock from that period. Only the fake
names of the musicians can still fool you for a while.
But behind these names you’ll discover a lot of familiar
faces. For example, Veke Berg (bass) and Redar Gitsdorf (guitar) are
both aliasses for Roine Stolt. Bo Dean and Inge Naning are called
Tomas Bodin on a normal weekday and Hadde Wattnät is no other than
Hasse Bruniusson. Britt Marie is Bo’s girlfriend and I suppose Alf
Willberg is a pseudonym for Ulf Wallander. Maybe we could look at
this album as some sort of retrospective of The Flower Kings,
although not all of the band members are playing on this one.
The album
opens rather jazzy with Redar’s guitar, but “Stoneheart” gets a lot
more melodic when the Hammond of Bo joins in, as if the Hammond
compensates the jazzy guitar. A great start, with one of the best
tracks of the CD, with a superb, almost symphonic ending. “A Man
Without Mind” starts off as a symphonic track but soon gets a folky
atmosphere, because of the use of the accordion. The variation
between the folky parts and the more symphonic pieces gives this
track a progressive touch.
“The Gothenburg Heros” starts as an anthem on the accordion but the
melody is soon taken up by the whole band, which sounds a lot
better, but it still doesn’t get the ‘poppy hit” feeling out of my
head. The end of the song reminds me of “In Dulci Jubilo” from Mike
Oldfield.
“Waltz Of Sadness” is a very slow, sad waltz on accordion, sax and
vibraphone. “The Last Goodbye” also is a waltz, but a little bit
faster. Even “From the Foot” still contains the ¾ rhythm but this
time it’s played by the whole band and it sounds cheerful and
‘groovy’.
“The Summerdress” is a slow, melancholic folk song on accordion.
‘The Flu” creates a Camel atmosphere with a lot of Hammond organ,
which catapults it as best track of the album. And Roine, sorry,
Redar produces one of his great guitar solos.
”Östuna Anthem” is self explanatory, it’s an anthem for Östuna, a
village in Sweden.
”The Agent Dance” is once more one of the better tracks. It
contains a lot of Hammond and great drumming by Hadde.
Apparently the
recordings of “Always Grumpy” were lost and the song had to be
re-recorded by The Flower Kings, although you can’t recognize them
in it. A great song with a lot of saxophone and accordion.
To top it all off, Bo Dean adds some experimental stuff in “Brunos
Erotica”.
This has
become a CD with a lot of folk and progressive influences from the
seventies, but, of course, that was the intention from the start. If
you like folk music, accordion and progressive rock from the
seventies then you shouldn’t have any doubts. If you’re listening to
this album, don’t push the ‘skip’ button too soon, because a lot of
tracks start very quiet with an accordion, but get more groovy
during the second half. This is another successful project coming
out of the impressive TFK world. |
