Friday, August 16, 2024

ROBERT ERWING – Betongänglar (Text O Bild, 1982)


Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

After releasing one single on the vehemently commercial label Mariann in 1981, he returned with a privately released full album the following year. A strange affair with symph rock aspirations, loaded with cheesy synths and Erwing's thin, slightly nasal and rather funny sounding voice. He's definitely not much of a singer, and not a lyric writer of note either. His observations, summed up in album sub-title ”En förortssymfoni” (”a suburbian symphony”), are banal and sometimes out of metre, and they only get more in your face when delivered with Erwing's shaky, occasionally off-key vocals. The musicianship is otherwise decent – especially for a private release – with plenty of unknown local Gothenburg performers. The only one I can spot that had a career in music after this album is co-songwriter Göran Ihrfeld who later was in Beatles tribute band Lenny Pane. Most famous name here is well-known actor Reine Brynolfsson who draw the record label!

”Betongänglar” is unbearable if taken seriously, but if you're into off-beat music devoid of self-awareness, this is a gem.

Betongänglar (suite)

2 comments:

  1. Erwing har gett ut en LP på senare år, intressant nog: ”Riding the Bull Home at Six”. Fanns) att plocka upp på Bengans i Göteborg relativt nyligen. :)

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  2. Hade ingen aning om det! Hur är den i jämförelse med Betongänglar?

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