| CD REVIEW Friska Viljor |
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Band : Friska Viljor This Stockholm based Swedish band as founded in January 2005 by friends Daniel Johansson and Joakim Sveningsson. Left by their girlfriends around the same time, the twosome drowned their sorrow in alcoholic together, and after a tour of their hometown's night life during which the guys went through several drunken discussions (mainly about love), found themselves in a rather untidy rehearsal studio. The duo then and there made the decision to never again compose music while not drunk, and wanting to put their past hurts aside, it's therefore not surprising that the band's debut album Bravo! (Swedish release 2006, worldwide a year after) was lyrically centered around women, alcohol, and Rock 'n' Roll (putting to work the psychological axioms to heal by talking about what ails you), that to. The album's single Gold was relatively successful, going up to #12 in their country's hit parades. After having gained some popularity in Sweden, the band traveled to Hamburg in Germany to offer their album to a couple of record stores, and do some small pub shows, to which eventually were added some festival appearances (like the Haldern Pop event). The band eventually also broke through in Germany, and journalists liking the foundation story of the act kinda held on to it, even though the guys eventually touched on other topics with the ensuing albums Tour de Heart (2008) and For New Beginnings (2009). Still, as time passed on, the guys indeed overcame their past hurts. So, no more broken hearts, no more alcohol obsession (once the duo's biggest source of inspiration), women now a source of joy rather than an object of despise...or at least most of the time, because every now in a while some reminiscing is done by everyone, right? Part of the mood change was possibly induced by the fact that the duo (who play live accompanied by befriended musicians) had moved from the dreary and dark Stockholm to the far brighter Berlin. Originally, the plan was to stay in Berlin for a 3-month period to write the new album, then go back to Stockholm to record the album. But when they returned home they found out they'd had só much fun, that they had not written óne song. Then came the Summer bringing sun, blue skies, boat trips, swimming, and fishing or...more good times to be had. Controversially, inspiration only came back with the coming of winter. According to the info we got with our (download) promo copy, the duo this time went about writing their songs in quite a different way. In the past they would use cheerful music with sad lyrics, and vice versa. This time, they started to accentuate melancholic texts with equally sad music, and vice versa. Expect Poppy music with Folk touches, coming from the use of such instruments as ukelele, mandolin, glockenspiel, accordeo, trumpets and kalimba. But also expect the unexpected electric guitar thrown in at the backside of some of the songs. Well, to better understand what this band is about, perhaps you'd actually better listen to some of their music, as posted at (www.) myspace.com/friskaviljor...or, in case you're that lucky to be a German reader, go to one of the band's shows when they pass through your neighborhood (oh, on April 23 they play at Amsterdam's Paradiso, and on the 21st they're in London's Bush Hall). 84/100 Tony. |