release date: Nov. 12, 1997
format: cd (repress)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Zed (aka Zed Nagrano)
label: RCA Victor - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "Livräddaren" - 2. "Om du var här" (4 / 5) - 3. "Saker man ser" - 4. "Oprofessionell" (4 / 5) - 6. "Celsius" - 7. "Bianca" - 8. "Innan allting tar slut" (4 / 5) - 9. "Glider" - 10. "747" (4 / 5)
3rd studio album by Kent introduces Zed [Zed Nagrano] in the producer seat (as the first of three consecutive albums) and a new style. Zed also worked on the first to albums with Kent as he mixed both albums and on Verkligen, he also recorded the album with producer Nille Perned.
After having released the predecessor, the band was expanded with rhythm guitarist Harri Mänty.
Stylistically, it's obvious that the band has taken a new direction. The single tracks are simply much more sophisticated without being over-arranged, and when comparing with the first two albums, Isola basically sounds radically different as if made by another band.
If Verkligen brought the band its first national prize, Isola easily brought more than twice the amount of recognition. The album went #1 on the albums chart list, and Kent won four awards - two at the Swedish Grammis [Grammy Awards] winning for Best Album and Best Pop / Rock Group, and they were awarded a Rockbjörn [award held by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet] for Best Album.
I have always thought of Isola as "the other twin" to Tillbaka till samtiden (2007), although there's a 10 year gap between the two, but the kinship has to do with the same dark atmosphere and a stronger focus on musical arrangements. Two tracks here are really stand-outs: "Om du var här" and "Innan allting tar slut". Both seems more in family with the best tracks on the successor Hagnesta Hill.
Somehow, the album never was a favourite Kent album at first. I really couldn't put a finger on it, as the production is better than ever before, and you may find the band in a much more homogeneous state compared to the first two albums. It ceased to slip my mind, I realised it being one of their better ones. At this point of their career it sticks out as their absolute best, and in retrospect, it's probably their album that has grown most on me. It's clearly Kent's most laid-back, or meditative album, and also their so far most introspective one.
The album was re-issued by RCA Victor in '98 with English versions of the songs.
Recommended.
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