International relevance: ***
Swedish vocals
This is typical to what I call
”satellite progg”, something that is related to progg but not
quite progg in itself.
It's fair to call Figaro a supergroup.
Members Anders Nordh and Palle Sundlin had previously been in Life,
Resan, King George Discovery and Baltik. Nordh was also part of, for
instance, Tages extension Blond. Sundlin also played bass on Lasse
Tennanders 1974 debut album ”Lars Vegas”. Singer and guitarist
Peter Lundbladh had done session work for several artists and would
continue doing so long after Figaro split up. He had a successful
solo career, and most Swedes remember him for his painfully annoying
summer hit ”Ta mig till havet”. He was also in Nailband alongside
Figaro drummer Tommy Andersson, who, like Sundlin and Lundbladh, also
had done stints with Lasse Tennander. The same goes for Torbjörn
Eklund who had been in the obscure Opponer, and later went on to play
on a couple of Bo Hansson albums, as well as the second solo album
from Kebnekajse's Mats Glenngård. So it's easy to see that when
Figaro got together as Duga (a pun on a Swedish expression that's
impossible to translate), it was a pretty seasoned lot. In time for
recording sessions for their only album, they changed their name to
Figaro. It was recorded in the end of 1975, and released the
following year by CBS.
The CBS label gives a clue to what they
sound like. This isn't a hardboiled progg album filled to the brim
with leftwing social criticism. On the contrary, it's a rather
commercial sounding effort, and the band did in fact score a hit with
”Framåt” culled from the album as their only single (backed with
”DJ”, also taken from the album). The sound isn't far removed
from other commercial acts of the times such as Landslaget, and
sometimes there are even slight hints at teen idol Ted Gärdestad. To
be honest, it's an album that I don't really want to like.
But I can help but doing so. The songs
are incredibly well crafted with some imaginative chord changes. The
melodies may be on the smooth side but they are simply irresistable.
The playing is, as you can imagine, on the top of the heap, with
Nordh in good shape. The production is dense and rich; especially the
acoustic guitars have a full, ringing sound. Songs range from the
mellow, Crosby Stills Nash & Young-like ”Fjärilen och katten”
full of shimmering, to the heavy(ish) ”Hem” which is as far as
the album ventures into progg territory.
It does have some real clunkers too
though. The social commentary on cannabis use in ”Harry Brass”
(translates to ”Harry Pot”) is naïve and the song is simply
moronic. Equally idiotic is ”En hypokondrikers bekännelse”, but
that one is short at leasta, clocking in on just over one minute. Hit
single ”Framåt” might not be the best example of the album's
qualities but it still has some odd appeal. The lesser tracks are in
a minority, and it's tracks like the previously mentioned ”Fjärilen
och katten” and ”Hem”, along with the beautiful ”Höst”,
the rocking ”Hjältars hjältar”, and the lush ballad ”Egen
kvinna” that defines the album.
Commercial or not, I can't help but
give in to ”Figaro”.
Sadly, the best tracks off the album
isn't availabe on Youtube at the time of writing, so all I can offer
you is their single ”Framåt”.
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