Swedish vocals
International relevance: **
”Kalla
tårar” was Torkel Rasmusson's first solo album following the first
demise of Blå Tåget, following three years after their original
last album ”Slowfox”. Rasmusson's voice was one of my initial
snags approaching Blå Tåget, but once I got used to it – and it
took a good while to do so – the poetic shimmer of Rasmusson's
songs revealed itself to me. ”Kalla tårar” has a lot of that,
and it also displays a more stable execution than what characterizes
the Blå Tåget albums. The only former Tåget member here is Mats G.
Bengtsson; most of the back-up musicians are skilled players from the
Archimedes Badkar circuit. Using Per Tjernberg as a drummer and
percussionist certainly provides a solid ground to the song often
lacking in Blå Tåget. The title track and ”Detektiven” rock out
as much as Rasmusson ever rocked out, while ”Fläskfia” features
a wild fuzz solo that would have sounded quite out of place on a Blå
Tåget album. ”Det tycks vara en dag” reveals a prominent
mid-70's Dylan influence while ”Inget socker” has a tasteful
epic, reverb-soaked touch. Eight minute album closer ”Dagbok från
en stad” has a more 'closed' and claustrophobic sound that somehow
predicts the mood of Stockholm Norra's sole album. Only a couple of
tracks bogs down the album a bit (most notably the genuinely
nerve-grating ”Snask och snusk”), but all in all, ”Kalla tårar”
is a fine and underrated effort.
It took Rasmusson four years to come up with his follow-up solo album, and when ”En svart hatt” finally appeared, the 80s had arrived, and with them new production values. ”En svart hatt” has several good but not ”Kalla kårar”-great songs in the typical Rasmusson vein, but the sound is a bit on the sterile side, weakening the overall impact. Even the addition of Roland Keijser's usually warm and inviting saxophone sound on ”Natten” suffers from the ingratiating production. The songs might be weaker than on ”Kalla kårar”, but they would have been empowered by a more sympathetic sound. I don't think ”En svart hatt” would ever have been a masterpiece, but it could have been more than it is now: half lost in an unredeemed state.
Kalla tårar full album playlist
No comments:
Post a Comment