Thursday, June 16, 2022

SYDKRAFT – Sydkraft (EMI, 1979)


Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance:*

This is an album I've hesitated to put up here for years. But as it's among those '100 bands you also might want to check out' in ”The Encyclopedia of Swedish Progressive Music” book, I thought that I should have a go at it anyway, if only to get it done with. While it has faint progg hints as in the guitars of ”London (Hela dygnet laddat)” and ”Lycka till”, it's not really a progg album at all. It's closer to the commercial pop rock of bands such as Noice, Snowstorm and Magnum Bonum. Names that mean little or nothing to foreign listeners but say a whole lot to Swedes. And what they say is not good.

Sydkraft may have had more pronounced new wave or pop punk edge than the aforemention bands, but not enough to redeem their truly annoying songs. The best track is the Buddy Holly cover ”Love's Made A Fool Of You” which features some pretty hot harmonica from Mats Ronander (Nature et al), but it's still pretty redundant. The worst moments by far is Sydkraft's attempt at reggae which is closer to an insult than a tribute. For some reason, some people holds this album in pretty high regard, but don't ask me why because I found this one a 24 carat clunker. They had two singles out as well (both included on the digital reissue), but thankfully they never relased another album.

Full album playlist

1 comment:

  1. They were ambivalent as a band. Wirack wrote great Ramones-y songs with English lyriks like the first 45 Surfway, which was murdered on the LP as a reggae version. Hafström wrote more junkie progg songs, and Svensson’s were more New wave/progg.
    EMI were about to launch them when Gyllene Tider broke so it all faded out.

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