Sort Sol "Stor langsom stjerne" (2017)

Stor langsom stjerne
release date: May 19, 2017
format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Randall Dunn
label: Columbia Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "The Weightless" - 2. "...Like a Trance Like..." (4 / 5) - 3. "Nocturnal Creature" (feat. Emily Cripe) - 5. "Stor, langsom stjerne" - 7. "Life Took You for a Freq." (feat. Chelsea Wolfe) - 8. "K-141 Kursk"

8th studio album by Sort Sol released 16 years after the band's last studio album Snakecharmer from 2001 - an album that had come to represent the end of the band.

The vinyl edition contains a bonus track ("Forever Present" on the D-side played at 45rpm). Founding member, as well as one of the band's essential songwriters, Knud Odde left the band in the aftermath of the last studio album, which left the band to a trio for another three years during which they managed to release a soundtrack to the movie "Baby" (2003). Guitarist Lars Top-Galia then left the band in 2004; however, both vocalist Steen Jørgensen and drummer Tomas Ortved determinately refrained from putting an end to the band and they managed to shelve it for the following years, and then in 2010 Top-Galia returned and the trio began performing for live concerts and they have stayed together since then. Rumours about a forthcoming new studio album began circulating after the new reformation, but then as most people had written that idea off this album was released.

Naturally, the musical output has changed, but perhaps to a degree where old fans will find it hard to associate this newfound style with that of Sort Sol. Apparently, the band had followed the incident of the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk and its tragic end with all 118 crew members being killing, as the band was finishing the album Snakecharmer. Jørgensen and Top-Galia had both wanted to compose a song based on the last notes by the submarine's captain, Dmitri Kolesnikov, but they never found the surplus artistic energy at a time when the band members had seen its own end approaching. The composition "K-141 Kursk" lasts 10:29 mins and is an orchestrated ambient hymn and it appears as the central composition of the album.

The album consists of 8 tracks and has a running time exceeding 51 mins. with the end-track lasting more than 10 mins. All songs except two are credited Jørgensen and Top-Galia. "Nocturnal Creature" has lyrics by Emily Cripe, who also sings on the track and "Life Took You for a Freq." has lyrics and vocals by Chelsea Wolfe. The album is credited Jørgensen, Top-Galia and Ortved as only band members but it's recorded and produced using a bunch of additional musicians where producer Randall Dunn plays synths and electronics on all tracks, and Timm Mason handles keyboards, synths and programming on five compositions, and both seems vital to the end-product.

Stylistically, this is an electronic ambient, synthpop, and art rock album, which doesn't sound like any other album by Sort Sol. You may recognise Top-Galia's distorted guitar-picking, but other than that, you will probably only associate this with Sort Sol by the characteristic dark vocal of Steen Jørgensen.

The single "...Like a Trance Like..." was released a month prior to the album release, and it became a bit of a national radio hit. The album was met by positive reviews and the band was nominated "Best Release" at the 2017 Grammy Awards, where the band was handed an "Honorary Prize".

The album is a big positive surprise, which I find quite fine and easily bettering most of the band's earlier releases and basically placing it close to top 3 of all their studio albums.

[ Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, Undertoner, Soundvenue 6 / 6 stars ]

[ collectors' item 'near mint' - from ~ €45,- ]

<  all albums rated >

~ ~ ~
"Albums by Sods / Sort Sol rated top to bottom"

1. "Glamourpuss" (1993)
2. "Flow My Firetear" (1991)
3. "Minutes to Go" (1979)

4. "Stor langsom stjerne" (2017)
5. "Under en sort sol" (1980)
6. "Everything That Rises..." (1987)
7. "Dagger & Guitar" (1983)
8. "Snakecharmer" (2001)
9. "Unspoiled Monsters" (1996)

~ ~ ~

Sort Sol "Snakecharmer" (2001)

Snakecharmer
release date: Apr. 1, 2001
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]
producer: Peter Sunding, Sort Sol
label: Mercury Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "I'll Take Care of You" - 3. "Brogue" - 4. "Rhinestone" (4 / 5) - 5. "Next Century" - 7. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"

8th and final studio album by Sort Sol. It took the band 5 years to realise the album, and after Unspoiled Monsters and a band that was often quoted to be on the verge of a break-up, the release of a new album wasn't really expected. Despite coming from a bit of a failure, they basically perform very much as on the predecessor in terms of both style and sound.
Snakecharmer doesn't really change my perspective of a band that might as well give in. Without really impressing, the album also performs on par with the 1996 album. Bassist and central composer of the band, Knud Odde - who composed the best track(s) on the album - had become increasingly more occupied with his career as an artistic painter, and after this, he called it a day and left the band for good.
This album may not be the band's worst attempt but it's far from one of their best. All thanks to Knud Odde, the album is an original Sort Sol album, but if you're looking for artistic originality, you need to turn to the band's back catalogue.
The three remaining members continued performing as Sort Sol, although, also guitarist Lars Top-Galia left in 2004 after having released the soundtrack album Baby (2003) to the Danish movie by Linda Wendell. This left Steen Jørgensen and Tomas Ortved alone to bury the band, which they didn't. They put the band on a hold - hoping they would somehow be able to pick up the pieces and carry on. Persuaded, Top-Galia re-joined the two in 2010, and the band toured and played a number of live concerts in 2011 when rumours circulated that a new album was to be released in 'a near future'. As of late 2015 this has yet to be proven...

Sort Sol "Unspoiled Monsters" (1996)

Unspoiled Monsters
release date: Mar. 20, 1996
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Ian Caple, Sort Sol
label: Columbia Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 2. "Sharks Capital" - 3. "My Stars" - 6. "Sol 66" - 10. "Erlkönig"

7th studio album by Sort Sol and the first after guitarist Peter Peter left the band. The album is released nearly 3½ years after the band's best-selling album Glamourpuss from 1993 and it seems the intentions to see if they can take their national success to an international scale with British producer Ian Caple by their side. Undoubtedly, Caple has helped shaping a more international sound and stylistically, this is a big move away from their two previous albums into primarily alt. rock.
Unspoiled Monsters sounds much like a clone of U2, R.E.M. and former Sort Sol with much focus on form, and it's hard to imagine the album without the sound of U2's Achtung Baby (1991).
I find it a surprising change of sound and it's an album almost without any great tracks, and as I recall, the general verdict was rather hard on a band that many had buried after Peter Peter was gone. It's not entirely bad as it has it's moments, but it failed to attract international interest. Once again, you may add, this left Sort Sol in a vacuum without or in search of a successful style.
After this, the band took a break from the spotlight and put the band on a halt, where several of the band members pursued individual projects. Eg. primary songwriter, bassist Knus Odde turned to concentrate on his personal interest in painting - the cover (painting 'The Black Plague', '95) here is by Karen Kilimnik, who seems a clear inspirational source to Odde (works by Odde). Vocalist Steen Jørgensen released the acclaimed trip hop alt. rock album Ginman / Jørgensen together with bassist Lennart Ginman in 1998.

Sort Sol "Glamourpuss" (1993)

Glamourpuss
release date: Nov. 16, 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,94]
producer: Sort Sol, Flemming Rasmussen
label: Columbia Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Dog Star Man" (4 / 5) (live) - 2. "Popcorn" (4 / 5) - 3. "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking" - 4. "Sleepwalker" - 5. "Shaheeba Bay" (4 / 5) (live) - 7. "Eileen Alphabet" - 9. "Lady of the Lake"

6th studio album by Sort Sol released 2½ years after the band's commercial breakthrough Flow My Firetear continues on the same stylistic path as the predecessor, which is something quite unusual for this band, who has always sought to renew its style going from one album to the next. The album is the last to feature founding member and lead guitarist Peter Peter [aka P. Schneidermann]. Like the '91 album, Glamourpuss contains nine songs and reaches a total running time at 40 mins.
Compared to the '91 album, the stylistic output has been polished even more on this, and it soon became the band's biggest commercial success, in part with thanks to the popular Danish movie "Nattevagten" from early '94 by Ole Bornedal (featuring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), which included several tracks from the album. Both band and album won several prizes at the Danish Grammy Award show in 1994 - the band won as Band of the Year, and the album was rewarded the two prizes: "Best Danish Album" and "Danish Rock Release", and producer Flemming Rasmussen won for "Danish Producer of the Year".
Glamourpuss both contains great energetic burst-outs like "Dog Star Man", "Popcorn", "Shaheeba Bay", and "Eileen Alphabet", as well as more subtle and harmonic ballads, and then it nearly doesn't contain any fillers, although it fades out a little towards the end. On top of that it's the band's most coherent and best produced album to date making it their best album, imho.
Despite both critics and fans' positive reception of the album founding member Peter Peter decided to leave the band after what he experienced as a negative turn to commercialism. After leaving Sort Sol he formed the band Bleeder (in 2000 reorganised and named The Bleeder Group).

Sort Sol "Flow My Firetear" (1991)

Flow My Firetear
release date: Feb. 26, 1991
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Kim Hyttel, Sort Sol
label: Columbia Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Siggimund Blue" - 2. "Daughter of Sad" - 3. "Girl of 1000 Tears" - 4. "Carry Me Into the Sun" - 5. "Midnight Train to Summer" (live) - 6. "Desdemona" (4 / 5)

5th studio album Sort Sol (third after renaming from Sods) released 4 years following Everything That Rises... and also reveals a rather bold change of style - just like the band has proved to develop from album to album over the years. The members list remains the same but the musical style has become more mainstream with focus on more traditional hard rock compositions and pop / rock chorus-lines. All tracks are credited all members of the band, although, the majority are written and composed by bassist Knud Odde. The album length is on the short side with a total running time at just over 30 mins.
With this, Sort Sol was all of a sudden on everyone's lips, and the album undoubtedly marks the band's commercial breakthrough in Scandinavia. Tracks #1 and #4 were released as individual singles and #1 and #5 were released on the same 7'' single and a 12'' also containing track #6 was released in '92.
Three tracks from the album became national radio stables that year: "Siggimund Blue", "Carry Me Into the Sun", and "Midnight Train to Summer". The first is great but I actually find that "Desdemona" is the best song on a truly fine album that I easily find their so far best. The first six tracks alone are truly great, and I would not have hesitated in handing it a 4 stars review if it wasn't for the last three compositions, which seems like mere fillers.

Sort Sol "Everything That Rises ... Must Converge!" (1987)

Everything That Rises ... Must Converge!
release date: Mar. 1987
format: cd (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: 4-eyed Thomas [aka Ulf Lindquist]
label: EMI Records - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Ode to Billy Joe" - 2. "A Knife for the Ladies" - 4. "Abyss Revisited" - 7. "Searching Down in the Block" - 10. "Marguerita"

4th studio album by Sort Sol originally released on Medley Records, and the band's second album after renaming from Sods is released more than three years after the predecessor Dagger & Guitar (1983). Since then, the band has been expanded to a quintet with guitarist Lars Top-Galia (aka Lars Top Jensen, former member of Danish punk rock band ADS). The album title is taken from the title of a short story by American writer Flannery O'Connor.
Musically, the band appeared in search of a new expression after leaving Sods behind, and this serves as another example of the attempt to find a style of their own. This is alt. rock and a more straight-forward version of their more reccent attempt of art rock-styled post-punk.
Imho, the album seems strongly influenced by the music of The Birthday Party and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and although, it's not one of the their most original nor best releases. Despite various influences, it's nevertheless an album with a more coherent expression than found on the band's second and third albums.
The '97 reissue of the album contains a bonus disc titled "The Violent Bear It Away" - also the title of a short story by O'Connor. The bonus disc contains seven tracks of primarily cover versions, and it truly improves the album release.

Sort Sol "Dagger & Guitar" (1983)

Dagger & Guitar
release date: Nov. 1983
format: vinyl (first pressing - MdLP 6163) / cd (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,28]
producer: Chris Butler
label: Medley Records - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Abyss" (live) - 2. "White Shirt" - 3. "Excalibur" - 4. "Boy-Girl" (feat. Lydia Lunch) - 5. "Boy in the Fire" - 6. "Off Morning" - 7. "Written Story" - 8. "Stuck to My Gun" (3 / 5) - 9. "Framelding" - 10. "As She Weeps" (feat. Lydia Lunch)

3rd studio album by Sort Sol is released nearly 3½ years after the band's sophomore album, Under en sort sol (1980) - during that time, the band changed its name from Sods to Sort Sol without replacing any band members, so to speak of a debut is not easily defended, although, this is the first studio release by the band Sort Sol.
At the time, it was hard to understand the change of name but it makes a lot of sense. The name Sods is narrowly associated with the punk rock scene. However musically, Dagger & Guitar is just a mere progression from their second album. In fact, stylistically, this has so much more in common with its predecessor made more than three years earlier than the first two albums as Sods share with one another, although being only separated by a single year.
Dagger & Guitar is a strange album, though. It has both sweet, nice, harmonic acoustically-driven music as well as experimental art punk tracks, lingering like music of the past, and mildly suggesting very different intentions. After listening to this, you had absolutely no idea of what to expect from the band next. Back then, I would probably have rated this higher - it hasn't aged well though, and mostly quite clearly showcases the band's indecisiveness about musical direction.
The '97 re-issue is extended with four bonus tracks, which is equal to the 12'' single version of "Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town" from 1985. It consist of cover versions including "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" by Bob Crowe and Bob Gaudio, and the title song by Mel Tillis, which became a small radio hit by Sort Sol.

[ collectors' item - 'vg+' 1st pressing - from ~ €40,- ]

      

1997
bonus reissue

1985
12'' single

Sods "Under en sort sol" (1980)

Under en sort sol
release date: Jun. 1980
format: vinyl (first pressing - MdLP 6027) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Michael Ritto, Werner Scherrer
label: Medley Records - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Repeature" - 2. "Ice-age for a While" (3 / 5) - 3. "Walking on Red" - 4. "Conflict" (3 / 5) - 5. "Roller Ball" - 6. "Marble Station" - 7. "Misguided" (3 / 5) - 8. "Eveningsong"

2nd studio album by Sods and also the final album under the name of Sods is released nearly 1½ years following the band's debut, which for a punk rock band is almost too long. Musically, the band has come a long way, and it's very different from their first studio album. The style is post-punk but in a more American and New York-based experimental art punk and no wave-style.
I was so fond of the debut album that I just went out and bought this, and boy, was I disappointed! The music is very different from their hardcore debut, and although, I was quite interested in the new developments within the punk rock and post punk sphere, I never found the album great. "Marble Station" has lyrics by the Danish poet Søren Ulrik Thomsen, and the final track, "Eveningsong" features Lars Hug of Kliché on vocals - he later debuted with his solo album City Slang (1984) consisting of music to poems entirely written by Ulrik Thomsen.
After this, the band rejected the name Sods and continued with an unchanged members list under the name of Sort Sol.
In retrospect, I think better of the album than at the time of its release. It's quite original in its sound and style, and it contains fine songs.

[ collectors' item - 1st pressing - from ~ €65,- ]

Sods "Minutes to Go" (1979)

Minutes to Go [debut]
release date: Feb. 1979
format: digital (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Poul Bruun
label: EMI Records - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "R.A.F." - 2. "Television Sect" (promo video) - 3. "Pathetic" - 4. "Police" - 5. "Flickering Eyes" - 6. "Suicide" - 7. "Transport" - 8. "Copenhagen" (live 2011) - 9. "Ghost City"

Studio debut album by the Danish punk rock pioneers Sods originally released by Danish label, Medley Records. The band is a quartet consisting of lead vocalist Steen (Birger) Jørgensen, guitarist Peter Peter [aka Peter Schneidermann], bassist Knud Odde (Sørensen), and with Tomas Ortved (Larsen) on drums. Eight out of a total of nine tracks are written by Sods - with the end-track, "Ghost City", a cover-version of a track by Suicide written by Alan Vega and Martin Rev. The running time is just below 30 mins, an album on the shorter side of 'long playing' albums, but for late '70s punk rock this wasn't unusual. The '97 cd re-issue contains an additional six tracks, lengthening the running time to approx. 40 mins. (4 tracks have a running time over 4 mins, 8 tracks are all under 2 mins.).
Somewhat late, Minutes to Go has come to be known as the first real Danish punk rock album - and a fine uncompromising first attempt. The style is hardcore punk, styled after the British punk of later bands like Charged GBH, UK Subs, Killing Joke, fused with early expressions as exemplified by Sex Pistols and Stiff Little Fingers and American new tendencies in punk like no wave and art punk as personified by Suicide and Lydia Lunch.
I was rather fond of this, although, I only ever had a copy on cassette.