Country: Norway
Artist: Trio
Career: recording since 1990
Language: English
Genre: Rock
I found this record in 2000 and it changed my life. No other record could be my number one-choice. For a band who’d already made a string of masterworks during the ‘90s (which I had yet to discover – let alone the mind-blowing live-experience) this was another quantum-leap. They’d already carved a path through hard rock, Floydish psychedelica, indierock, free jazz influenced improvisation. But now they turned their hand to the compact, fully arranged, advanced pop song album – with a couple of surprises along the way.
The first seconds of opening track ‘The other fool’ just blew me away on first listen, they still blow me away now. This may be chamber pop, but with the power (if not the volume) turned up to 11. It’s main composer Bent Saether’s own ‘pocket symphony, and still one of his greatest achievements. The songs soars through riffs and sections. As with the whole record, I’ve heard it 100s of times by now, and yet I’ve never tired of it. Immediately after comes ‘Upstairs-downstairs’, a serpentine ballad, elongated melodies perfectly arranged for horns and strings, sung in guitarist Hans Magnus Ryan’s Wyatt-esque quivering style. And side one, the pop side, goes on like that. To tell you the truth, every song has been my favourite at one point or another. The only one that’s slightly paled for me is the Beach boys-arranged ‘Big surprise’, but only because the lyrical mood doesn’t quite match the music for me. So I tune out the words, and just float along on the music (backing vocals, theremins, etc).
Side two is the ‘head’ side, 4 long tracks. As it should, with time this is the side I’ve returned to the most and delved into the deepest: ‘Whip that ghost’ is a beautiful instrumental (based on a variation of the bass riff from the Allman’s ‘Whippin’ post’ )- though the melody isn't similar, that sweeps you along – including two solos (guitar and piano) which rank very high on my list of wonderful solos through the ages. ‘Stained glass’ is a Floyd-ish droning ballad, with heartmelting slide. ‘My best friend’, one of my favourite songs in the world really. And at the very end, they go way out with ‘30/30’, a bewildering drone of strings and horns which sounds like little else and only after a couple of minutes resolves itself in a beautiful song. But it takes a while to find the courage to delve in that deep.
Oh, and it’s got a drummer song. Only truly great bands can afford drummer songs.
Anyway, a rewarding and infinitely rich record, which I recommend to anyone.
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