Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
”Spår”, the second album from this
singer/songwriter, is a numbing act of inprofiency where Axelsson
stumbles around in his catastrophes disguised as 'songs' like a
drunken elk trying to avoid an electric fence. Surprisingly enough,
this – his debut – is better (although I'm uncomfortable using
the word 'good' in any form when talking about Axelsson). At least it
sounds as if the backing musicians have some notion of what's
happening. They even manage to get some groove going on ”Jag vill”
(that curiously enough sounds a bit like the old soul nugget ”The
Snake”, brought to perfection by Al Wilson in 1969).
But, then there's Axelsson himself. His
lyrics are unbelievably lousy and sung with too much self-esteem. The
effect is tragicomic as often the case when incompetent performers
overrate themselves to the point of megalomania. Because no matter if
the backing musicians are within the spectrum of adequacy, they can't
conceal that John-Erik Axelsson is so lost in overestimating his own abilities.
While ”Barn” isn't quite as
cringeworthy as ”Spår”, it's still a genuinely terrible album where you
constantly sit anticipating in horror the next lyric like ”I went to a
party last Wednesday and I met a woman with fat fingers” (from
”Kvinnor”, ”Women”) will jump out of the speakers to smack
you straight in the face like a Mach 3 rotten plum bizzarely appearing out of nowhere.
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