International relevance: **
The album title means ”it's not our fault that licquor is popular”, but having heard their only original release ”Come To Me” b/w ”Gryning” (recorded in '79, released in '80), I objected emphatically to that assertion as the only way to get through that dreck is to be properly pissed. The A side is particularly bad, with a conspicuous lack of understanding of what makes a good song good. ”Gryningen” at least has a decent riff that reminds me of Midsommar's first album, but the song is spoilt by the vocals. So when I learnt that a full album compiling the self-financed single plus two previously unreleased 1980 studio sessions... well, let's say I was skeptical.
But I'm happy to admit that while the songwriting is still a bit shaky here and there, Horoscope made some progress in only a year. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Andrija Veljaca occasionally came up with a few tight riffs and got a better grasp of his songwriting in general. His vocals are still a bit of a stumbling block, but at least they're mostly OK on the 1980 tracks. Far from being an 'A' grade hard rock band (with a couple of nods to punk), Horoscope still had their moments as proven by this album.
The sound quality is mostly good, but as the liner notes warn you of, there's some tape drag on especially ”Nytt land” that will make you nauseous if you suffer from motion sickness. The final tracks also have a more muffled sound than the previous ones. Also note that at least some copies have a manufacturing error with all 11 tracks playing as one long.
Horoscope fell apart in 1981 when Veljaca left for Karlshamn band Turbo (who morphed into long running hard rock band Mercy). He died before his time from a brain hemorrhage in 2005. Second guitarist Tommy Wirén joined Ocean after Horoscope's ultimate demise.
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