release date: Sep. 1989
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Stefan Glaumann
label: Mistlur Records - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "Ståaldrigstill" (live) - 2. "Hon o han" - 3. "Djävulen och jag" - 5. "Pang boom krash" - 7. "Alla vill till himlen" - 8. "Döden i Schlager-SM" - 9. "Karenina" - 11. "I en spegel som jag har"
Studio album debut by Thåström (aka Sven Joachim Eriksson Thåström) as solo artist after leaving the band Imperiet - here with familiar producer Stefan Glaumann following only one year after Imperiet officially disbanded.
The sound and style is not far from what Thåström released with Imperiet. In fact, this first solo album sounds much like a combo of several albums by the band. It contains a certain post-punk vibe (tracks #1 and #11), keyboard-driven synthpop songs (#5 and #7), blues rock-inspired songs (#2 and #3), smooth pop ballads (#4, #6, #9, and #12), and songs that rest somewhere in a mix of what Imperiet released on its last three studio releases (some songs even sound like reworks of material released by Imperiet), which nevertheless represent a unique mix - like if you think Rolling Stones released its back catalogue in modernised synthpop versions... I guess.
At the time of the release I didn't pay much attention to the album and would probably have rated it as a mediocre release. Of course the sound and production reek of the 1980s but it's actually not a bad album altogether. Thåström has written a bunch of fine songs and balances these on sheer energy and soft and mellow ballad-like compositions, and despite pointing in (perhaps too) many directions, it really serves to document his songwriting qualities. Especially his ballads may have inspired Kent on albums they would later record, but by now Thåström already has put himself upfront with the best-known Swedish artists.
