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Rock
Published:
2021
Record label:
Sony Music
«Shines in a different way.»
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ALBUM: Not only is it good news that Sven Joachim “Pimme” Eriksson Thåström (64), or just Thåström, is today releasing his first album in two years, it is also quite big news that he will be interviewed tomorrow in ” Skavlan ».
He admittedly played in the program in 2015, but it is the first time in a couple of decades that the media-shy Swede speaks on TV – before giving a taste of his first album in four years, “Dom som skinner”. There he tells, among other things, what it was like to fire his band after 15 years. Only multi-instrumentalist, co-composer and co-producer Niklas Hellberg is left.
New style
Thåström’s latest album has been heavy, dark and full of gloomy moods, wrapped in industrial rock, noise and blues-inspired rock noir.
It started at the end of the album «Arm yourself with wings» (2012), that he found his form on “The Morning” (2015) and was continued on it – literally – massive «Centralmassivet» (2017).
Suggestive rattle rock from Thåström
Subdued mood
He is not in the habit of riding the same horses for very long, and here he surprises again. “Judgment that shines” feels like a natural sequel to “Central Massif”, yet it is different. The mood is more subdued, but still intense. Industrial rock is not completely gone, but the album has a greater focus on electronic instruments, strings and less guitar – perhaps inspired by the fact that he currently spends more time in Berlin than in Stockholm. The lyrics are not particularly cheerful either.
Perfect dramaturgy
In terms of production technology, “Dom som skinner” has a perfect dramaturgy, where the tempo is gradually increased. The opening “The southern Cross” begins with First Aid Kit’s voices that mass “slowly warm”, two words that recur throughout the song. It has something sacred about it and feels like a kind of prelude to the other eight tracks. It’s a suggestive song that just goes on and on for over six minutes.
Singelen «Paper thin walls», a duet with Tityo, is different and brighter in expression, a story framed by evocative strings about some loud neighbors and everything they do in a poorly soundproofed yard.
Pulsating
And it happens. Intense “Icebergs” is the closest you get to the latest records in terms of genre, a pulsating, synth-driven song – also the one with strings, Thåström’s “tormented” voice and Johanna and Klara in First Aid Kit, “who came past the studio and stood behind the microphones”. A highlight.
Thåström is back in the heavy industry, but also pays tribute to love – and 17 May!
The tempo is slowed down again in «Great long street», first with only piano accompaniment before the band strikes and twists it in a jazz direction: “I’d rather live like a bum in New Orleans than rot away here at home.” This could have been a crossbar from the fantastic «Skebokvarsv. 209 »(2005). «Toledo» powered by the strings and an acoustic guitar – and an acknowledgment: “Long farewells are the worst”.
Electronics themes
After a half-finished race, it is again, as on the “Central Massif”, that the good ideas – and some of the power – are gone. “The ones you need” and «Gyttjebrottaren» driven by electronics themes that roll and go, while the title track “Judgment that shines” adds itself to a pattern of gentle Thåström songs with piano accompaniment (which here is reminiscent of the Beatles’ “Let It Be”) and a little more. The songs in the second half are not as exciting as the first five, primarily because they are more than monotonous.
This does not apply to such an extent “Mother”, which ends the album. It has been given a “humming” arrangement, otherwise very similar to “Bluesen in Malmö” on its predecessor, about a mother who came alone to the big city – a touching song that sounds so far too abrupt. I would like to hear more about the mother of one of Sweden’s greatest artists.
Thåström – with a new band – will play in Oslo Spektrum on May 7 next year.
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