Rock/indie
Rating: 5. Rating scale: 0 to 5.
Henning
“Cowboy from space”
(Knippla records)
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Rock/indie
Rating: 3. Rating scale: 0 to 5.
Marcus Berggren
“Interest in cowboy life”
(Code records)
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There is cowboy fever in Swedish music publishing right now. Henning’s sixth album “Cowboy från rymden” has barely reached the record stores before it is joined by Marcus Berggren’s solo debut “Intresse för cowboyliv”. At the beginning of autumn, Maja Francis also released the album “Hello cowboy”, a kitschy pop flirtation with the country genre that made the 38-year-old singer from Ängelholm appear as Sweden’s Kacey Musgraves. Nevertheless, the two Gothenburg artists Henning and Marcus Berggren have more in common with each other than with Francis. Despite the fact that their expressions are quite different from each other, their respective albums seem to come from the same crowd. At the bottom, the echoes of a kind of sprained, but cheerful Gothenburg Sindie rattle. But one where Teslas, e-scooters and boasting buildings have now been added to the cityscape (and pop lyrics).
On “Cowboy från rymden” Henning dresses his melodic soft rock in a luxuriously orchestrated costume. The guitar is allowed to lead the way through a soundscape that moves freely through a Neil Young-esque seventies to more twangy tones, a wise-rock eighties or a sucking funk, as in “En kärlek sevl” where Henning’s vocals land somewhere between Olle Ljungström’s skewed and Orup’s sensual. Nevertheless, Henning sounds completely his own, when he lays out the text about everything from fishing sticks to wading in memories or being, and remaining, a restless soul. A cowboy from space, if you will. The result is an album that in a peculiar way pushes forward the boundaries of what Swedish indie can be and how it can sound.
Image 1 of 2 Comedian, writer and now musician Marcus Berggren. Photo: Alexander Söderling Image 2 of 2 Henning is current with his sixth album “Cowboy from space” Photo: Maja Gödicke
While Henning added years in refining his rocking twilight music, Marcus Berggren is rather driven by the debutant’s impatience. His debut album “Intresse för cowboyliv” is a sprawling mix of high-octane indie pop, skillful lofi rock and punk slam. But here is also the salt-sprinkled west coast serenade “Havet”, which in the context appears as a warm tribute to all vispoets who have gone before. Marcus Berggren is not breaking any new musical ground. Rather, he leans toward what has already been done. To be honest, there is a bit too much of a rehearsal room feeling about the musical patchwork that he put together with the pair horse and producer Mattias Tell.
At best, the album appears liberating, choice-free and punkishly acute in its descriptions of mental illness, financial hardship and a society that fails. At worst, it sounds sketchy and unfinished. The poetic look in the popular comedian’s two collections of poems must be left behind in favor of a straighter and more uncompromising tone. It becomes most burning when the poet and the musician get to meet after all, as in the seven-minute long “Outro” or in the introspective “Komikern”.
Best track: “Johanna” (Henning), “Outro” (Marcus Berggren)
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