ROBERT BROBERG – Tolv sånger på amerikanska (RKOB, 1978)

English vocals

International relevance: ***

Ranked #17 on the blog's Top 25 list

Robert Broberg left Sweden for the States after ”Vem är det som bromsar & vem är det som skjuter på”. He began planning for ”The Rise amd the Fall of the Plastic Messiah”, an ambitious stage show meant to include movies, stills, theatre, masks and music. As far as I can discern, only the music was finished, and released on Broberg's private RKOB label. Recorded with noted session musicians Stefan Brolund (bass), Jan Tolf (guitar) and Claes Wang (drums) in the legendary Studio Decibel, the album still has a 'homemade' aura to it, as if it was recorded in a small living room.

The lyrics emphasize the music's claustrophobic feel (that always reminds me of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band's 'tree' album). All of them deal with the superficial modern society where humans are first reduced to consumers and then a disposable commodity with no second hand value. In the end, ”Tolv sånger på amerikanska” (”twelve songs in American”), is a deeply existential record, taking Broberg's self-doubt to a higher universal level (or a deeper one, depending how you look at it). It's an album of generalized anxiety; an unease that has become an integrated part of an uncertain being. I'm convinced that Broberg's bipolar disorder is the foundation of this album (he spent some time in a psychiatric hospital during his U.S. years), and that the American socety's fixation with the glamourous surface further provoked the self-detachment that was evident already on Broberg's previous albums. The album cover captures this perfectly: A naked human being against an empty but over-saturated background.

There's something scary about the album; once you actually hear it and not just listen to it. It's like staring into the darkness knowing it stares back at you from a constantly elusive, dissolving place you didn't even know existed in the first place.

So maybe it's not that surprising that ”Tolv sånger på amerikanska” was one of Broberg's most neglected albums for such a long time. The album doesn't fit in with the simplified image the casual listener has of him as a funny chap delivering word plays to hummable tunes. This album doesn't really fit in anywhere and that's one of it's true strengths. It's a one of a kind album that doesn't blind you with flashes to your face, but creeps up on you until it has you all wrapped up in its emotionally and mentally tangled web.

And ”Song to a Plastic Messiah” is one of the greatest songs ever released on a Swedish 70's album. Actually on any Swedish album ever.

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