OBADJA – Testa (Obadja, 1977)

  Swedish vocals
International relevance: ***

I suppose a lot of people had never heard about Obadja until Subliminal Sounds included them on the ”Frälst!” compilation with the hard rocking title track from their sole album, a private pressing from 1977. But it's the least representative one. ”Testa” consists of sometimes lightly funky but mostly moody, reflective songs with a slight, very pleasing basement feel. The lyrics are all about Jesus, and some of them are naive and in the case of ”Räddningsfirman” outright cringy, but there's a sincerity to them that in fact is rather endearing. Songwriter and piano player Torbjörn Westberg has a keen melodic sense, an his voice is a bit similar to Pugh Rogefeldt's at times with a disarming directness to it. The only bad track here is guitarist Lars Ohlsson's ”Våldets spiral”. And you can't say he's a perfect guitarist, sometimes stumbling on his otherwise edgy solos, but that actually adds to the earnestness and deepens the impact of the predominantly piano driven songs (both acoustic and electric piano are used).

With the exception of ”Våldets spiral”, the songs are so great it's hard to pick a facourite. But I'm particularly fond of album opener ”Jobbig tid” with a hypnotic, descending scale (and included as a digital bonus track on ”Frälst!”).

I haven't heard every Christian album ever released in Sweden (the very thought of doing it is horrifying), but if there's any one better than this, I'd be more than happy to hear it. ”Testa” is quite simply a wonderful effort and should be a no-brainer for a proper reissue. 

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