release date: Nov. 12, 2021
format: vinyl (gatefold clear vinyl - LTD.) / digital (9 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]
producer: Niklas Hellberg, Sanken Sandqvist, Thåström
label: Razzia Records - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "Södra Korset" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Papperstunna väggar" - 3. "Isbergen" - 4. "Stora långa gatan" (4 / 5) - 5. "Toledo" - 6. "Dom du behöver" - 7. "Dom som skiner" - 8. "Gyttjebrottaren" - 9. "Mamma"
10th studio album as soloist from Swedish Thåström following more than four years after the fine Centralmassivet (Sep. 2017) also on Razzia, and also with Niklas Hellberg and Thåström as primary instrumentalists. On this, they are supported by Thåström's stable collaborator Sanken Sandqvist, who already featured on releases by Imperiet back in the late 80s, he took part in Thåström's first two solo albums, and he was co-composer on a some tracks with the experimental Thåström-Hellberg-led project Peace, Love & Pitbulls in the 90s. Sandqvist is here co-composer on a single song but he is like Hellberg and Thåström credited as co-arranger on all nine compositions. Apart from that, the album feature Swedish (sibling-)duo First Aid Kit, who lends vocals on three tracks (#1, #3, and #8) and Titiyo (track #2). Four years is a long time in between releases but that doesn't mean that Thåström has been inactive since 2017. In May 2020 he released the live-album Klockan två på natten, öppet fönster....
Dom som skiner follows nicely on the path laid out with Centralmassivet without sounding like a second chapter. It seems as if Thåström has found his own niche in the alternative rock genre. It's a place where he understands to blend input from various stiles he has previously been touching in cleaner output. He has released albums of hard industrial rock and he has explored electronic music - both in Peace, Love & Pitbulls, as solo artist as well as in the project Sällskapet, and then he has released troubadour-albums focusing more on lyrics, but with his most recent two albums it seems as if he has found an expression that balances lyrics and an original musical output with elements, or just glimpses of industrial rock and electronica. And it functions on a higher level. The album is with its 'only' nine tracks quite traditionally adapted the vinyl format with a total running length of approx. 43 minutes, but what's truly remarkable about the album is, once again, Thåström's gift to write songs with more than just a message, with something to ponder about and still maintain the ability to make highly original and harmony-driven music.
The album is btw. only Thåström's second solo album together with Kärlek är för dom (2009), which doesn't show Thåström himself on the front cover. Here, it's fronted by the modern classic photo "Den vite clownen" [The White Clown] (1978) by Swedish photographer Hans Gedda. Apart from that, the album artwork (back, inside and vinyl labels) are replications of details from works by Danish-Israelian artist Tal R (aka Tal Shlomo Rosenzweig).
Highly recommended.
[ Gaffa.dk 6 / 6, Aftonbladet 4 / 5 stars ]
2021 Favourite releases: 1. Mogwai As the Love Continues - 2. Thåström Dom som skiner - 3. Lisa Gerrard & Jules Maxwell Burn
