Swedish vocals
International relevance: *
Here's an album with a rather unusual
back story. Swedish radio legend Kjell Alinge wanted an album of old
Swedish evergreens from the 30's and 40's performed as rock music.
A one album only studio project for which several progg illuminaries
were recruited: from the Blå Tåget camp we have Mats G. Bengtsson;
from International Harvester there's Thomas Tidholm; Ove Karlsson
came from in Arbete & Fritid; Thomas Svensson (later Stålberg),
Anders Åborg and Thomas Wiegert joined in from Kung Tung, and to
round things off, there's the omnipresent Sigge Krantz. They chose
the collective name of Bröderna Lönn (literally: The Maple
Brothers, Lönn being a fairly common Swedish family name) to make it
sound like an old-fashioned combo. The result is curious to say the
least. Thomas Tidholm takes the lead vocals, and never one found on
any lists of the best ever singers, it's odd to hear him struggle his
way through interwar hits. His trying vocals work in some formats
like Hot Boys, but here it just sounds bizarre, even touching on
what's known as 'incredibly strange music'. Thing is, the backing musicians don't sound
as they enjoy much of it either, providing a stiff and uninspired
backdrop to Tidholm's roller coaster croon. The only track that has
some life in it is the seven minute take on ”Regntunga skyar”
which manages to sounds eager and oddly desperate.
The idea behind this album was
eccentric to begin with, and the results are abnormal. It wouldn't
surprise me if ”Säg det i toner” adds a blush to the faces of
the involved. I
certainly hope they at least got a decent paycheck for the embarassment, but I doubt that since no well endowed people appear to
have been involved in this dud.
Full album playlist
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