HÄNDER

After three fantastic albums, Kaipa suddenly decided to cut a deal with ABBA's label Polar Records and go pop, as all other bands at the time and I must say they did pretty well. The sound-quality is amazing, using Polar studios (the same studio that Led Zeppelin used to record their swan song "In through the out door" the year before). The music is warm and colourfull as usuall but much simpler and more easy-listening. Here and there you can hear how they explode, like in the old days, but overall it's rather lame, still beautiful and melodic. Roine Stilt was no longer with the band at this time, making a solo-career instead. It isn't Kaipa as they've sounded in the beginning, but even so it's a nice album. Hasn't been released on CD yet, which is a big shame, but you can easely find a vinyl-rip on theinternet to make a cdr-copy of your own, while waiting for it to be released on CD.

Roine Stolt left KAIPA after SOLO, and Hans Lundin seems to be completly lost. What exactly was his goal with Hander? I suppose he wanted to create a more accessible music based on keyboards with " modern sounds". But the resut is really very poor :pompous and really boring. The worst is the singing : very agressive and to say the truth ridiculous. Bergman plays on each song the same metronomic rythm and it's really a scandal when you kow his fantastic work on previous three records. The only song to save is Regn, an instrumental who recalls how great was this band.

Well, they´ve done better in the past. But quite well recorded i ABBA:s studio in Stockholm right after Genesis had finnished their weak Duke album. The most peculiar with this album "Händer" is that I just saw them live a couple of month before the release of this album. What I remember from that very special evening, was an tremendous concert, a real magic peformance of Kaipa. When I heard the album, I must say, I was a litle bit disapointed. Not with the songs, but the lack of good production. Bad production was unfortuneatly a common desease, not onely for Kaipa but for Swedish music in general during the seventies. But there's a great bunch of nostalgia in "Händer"

ONE MAN IS GONE AND THE WHOLE COLLAPSED

Ouch! This album really hurts. How is it possible to go that low?

Only in a two years period of time. Two explanations: Roine is gone, which with no doubt has an enormous impact on Kaipa's music at the time and two years have passed since their last album.

Meaning that the early eighties were not the best times for prog. And one can figure this out while listening to this album.

It is quite a shock to listen to the first two tunes. Awful AOR all the way round. Kind of pre-Asia if you see what I mean. And at this time, the Swedish vocals really don't help. Mats Löfgren was not really great on their previous album (which was very good by the way), but here he sounds rather poor.

After this disgusting start, "Regn" appears as a jewel. A wonderful and melodic instrumental (which is by far their strength) reminds us that "Kaipa" can still deliver true symphonic moments. An excellent track which is by far the best of this album (but it is not difficult).

Another good moment is the instrumental (again) intro of "Elgrandi Krig". Scary, bombastic. For three minutes or so. Just before the nightmare starts all over again.

Just avoid this album. Two stars, no more (and I am generous).

At this stage is their career, Kaipa should have changed the pronounciation of their name to "kao-pai".

This album, at best, sound like a weak imitation of Peter Gabriel, around the time of his second album through So. Vocalist Mats Löfgren even sounds quite a bit like an aging Peter Gabriel, if Gabriel sang in Swedish. When they aren't sounding like Gabriel, they are sounding like late era (boring) Genesis. This is not a good thing. Aside from a few tolerable keyboard riffs, there is nothing to recommend this piece of imitative drivel.

It's not surprising that Roine Stolt left this band.

By the 1980 Kaipa was no more in that excellent form that were in 1978, this album named Hander or Hands in english caught Kaipa in a more pop zone but with some good moments here and there. The brain of the band Stolt now is gone living a hole in the entire mechanism. Not very much to add, just a good album to my ears, ok sometime mediocre, some tracks sounds like a more dark version of ABBA pop songs, Krieg for ex. Now, here is a piece that is absolutly brilliant, dark, moody, slow but with some very fine arrangeents, is the instrumental one named Regn or Rain in english. I love this piece a lot, the best from here for sure, another fine moments are on Elgrandi , another instrumental one. The rest of the album is from pop zone with some good keybords and guitars here and there, the symphonic prog is no more present, but in the end an ok album, not something special for sure and kinda miles away from Solo, previous album but pleasent. 2.5 rounded to 3 only for Regn and Elgrandi.

5/10

Welcome to the 80s, Kaipa!

Yes, the Swedish group was also one of those changed their sound with the advent of pop music and the end of the golden era of progressive rock. Probably the output of Roine Stolt had a significant impact on this controversial change. Here they sound like bands art rock / new wave that were emerging in England and the United States dominated the radio (to the horror of prog purists). Seriously, replace the vocals in Swedish vocals in English and by you will not know which is Kaipa!

Although I'm a fan of music this decade and admire the work of those bands I think there hander has its flaws. But no, this album is not crap as they say, in my view. He does not equate to quality of 90125 or Invisible Touch (do not crucify me for that, please!), But not something to throw away. The first two tracks are really forgettable, but the instrumental Regn is a beautiful gem with the spirit of that time and a reminder that Kaipa could still make good music and Med Trasiga Segel also is noteworthy. The other songs... good, they are somewhat ambiguous to me, but I can not change my decision to give a rating of "good, but non-essential" to that album.

Three stars healthy.