Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***
Marie Selander is a prominent singer
who participated in too many projects to mention in detail, but she
turned to music after meeting John Lennon in a taxi in the 60's, then
forming the band that would turn into Nursery Rhymes, the first
all-female Swedish pop group.
”Från den svenska vildmarken” was
Selander's first solo album featuring a brilliant group of backing
musicians: Bengt Berger, Urban Yman, Nikke Ström, Palle Danielsson,
Torkel Rasmusson and Kjell Westling. The songs were mostly written by
Rasmusson, Westling, Leif Nylén and Selander herself, fusing folk, jazz and. Sometimes the album almost sounds like a coarse Pentangle with their brains on fire. It's a genuinely
inspired (and inspiring) effort, with excellent playing (listen, for
instance, to Bengt Berger letting it loose on opening track ”På
lilla värtan”!) and Selander's gritty and wonderful vocals on top.
The lyrics are blatantly political but
the highly spirited performances are so good it's easy to look beyond
the propagandizing words. ”Från den svenska vildmarken” is one
of those albums that somehow has bypassed the interest of collectors,
possibly because of the nature of the lyrics, why it still can be
found cheap. So there's no excuse for not getting this awesome album!
Full album playlist
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