Swedish vocals
International relevance: **
This is one of those albums I thought
would entirely different than I suspected it would be. Long before I
heard it I thought this would be a jazz album somewhere between
Tintomara and Salamander. But Häxfeber proved to be a rock progg band but was
probably the all female line-up that fooled me because it was still
more common with women jazz groups than rock ditto in Sweden in those
days (although punk changed some of that).
Häxfeber weren't the best of
instrumentalists. Especially drummer Karin Fält should have
practised her drum fills a bit more before putting them on permanent
record. ”Avenyn” is one of the most evocative tracks on their
eponymous album, but the drum stumbles somewhat spoil the mood that
the vaguely reggae influenced beat and the heavily reverbed guitar
create. Another snag is the vocals, as if the singers felt they had
to proclaim the feminist themed lyrics with too much urge to get
heard (which might have been perfectly true). Then again, we mustn't
forget that 1980 was a landmark year for Swedish punk, and Häxfeber were clearly aware of what was going on around them.
I do like guitarist Birgitta Larsson though. She isn't flashy (that doesn't automatically equals good anyway), but her licks and leads are quite tasteful, and she's also good at finding suitable sounds. The albums doesn't hold up all through, but there are several good, effective songs that would have been even better with a generally more proficient execution.
”Häxfeber” is a decent album with
both flaws and strengths, a bit of an unfulfilled promise. Häxfeber had some talent but not the time to develop it – they disbanded
after this album, and only Birgitta Larsson appeared shortly in
another band, the obscure Scandal Beauties who had two songs on V/A
compilation ”Vilda vanor” in 1985.
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