Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***
This is the soundtrack to Roy Andersson's first feature film ("A Love Story") which resulted in his immediate domestic breakthrough as a director (although he's best known internationally for his award winning 2000 movie ”Songs From The Second Floor”).
Björn Isfält of Xtra was hired to score the film and he's written or co-written all pieces here except ”Would You Like To” which is by Jan Bandel and Greg FitzPatrick, with vocals by Staffan Stenström. Stenström sings on four of the songs, all them also also released as singles. If his name sounds familiar, it's probably because he was also in Atlantic Ocean (and their forerunners Quints) and, as numerous others, later involved in the Tillsammans project. A more surprising name in this context is Anita Lindblom who was a commercial pop singer in the 60s and 70s, whose ”Sånt är livet” was a massive hit in 1961 and has since become a Swedish evergreen. But she had a role in the movie and was probably expected to sing as well.
As always the case with soundtrack
albums, this isn't meant to be a consistent whole, and it isn't. The
Lindblom tracks stick out as two sore thumbs, and while Isfält's
instrumentals are pleasant, they're really not something that
motivates too many listens. Which leaves Staffan Stenström's
contributions which are very good. I really like his husky voice
which adds a beautifully brooding atmosphere to the four songs he's
on. As the singles are rather hard to come by (and the same can be
said of original copies of the soundtrack LP), the CD reissue from
2003 is probably the easiest way to obtain them. I think it's worth
it, actually mandatory to Atlantic Ocean fans as these four tracks make for a
very nice addition to their otherwise small output.
Full album playlist
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