Instrumental, Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***
A late-coming wannabe progg band based
in Uppsala with a stupid name to boot ('Teddybear Band'). Teddybjörn Band released their sole folk shaded progressive styled album on the baffingly
inconsistent and diverse Piglet label, home to Jonas Palm and others.
Opening track ”Toradans” is half decent as a lead-foot Samla Mammas Manna rip-off, but marred by stiff
drumming and a synth sounding as if it was nicked from ABBA. The
drumming is in fact a problem to the entire album, which is
perplexing once you realize there are three different drummers
playing here; Hasse Bruniusson (Samla Mammas Manna), Ingemar
Bergman (Kaipa), and Per Gulbrandsen (Subgruppen, Störningen). It's
not easy to tell them apart as all of them offer up such stiff
performances they make a pile driver sound like a James Brown 45.
The vocals are mostly overwrought and
overbearing and the worst singer of
them all is Ann Chabaan who appeares on a couple of tracks. She takes the lead on ”Du har gett upp”,
sounding like a bad dream to ruin even vibrato wobbler Jan Hammarlund's sleep.
To top it off, the production is
clinical, almost sounding like a Nacksving album.
Teddybjörn Band tries contortionally to come up with something worthwhile but constantly lose themselves in a morass of clichéd pretentiousness.
One of the singers in the band, Frans Mossberg, did the cover painting and released 1982 solo album "Tystnader", also on Piglet.
Full album
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