BLÅ VARDAG

Music from 1979 in the style of CAMEL, FOCUS or early GENESIS but without the virtuosic guitar work of a Jan Akkerman or Steve Hackett. I's pretty well recorded--clear and well mixed. The songs are thoughtfully composed in a symphonic at-times bordering on jazz fusion style with no shortage of complexity and dynamic variation. The songs are all sensitively performed with all instrumentalists contributing equally. The keyboard players (there are two!) are to my ears the most impressive performers, though the bass and drums are very tight and quite talented. It might be said that the guitarist is the weak link--though he's by no means poor. For example: There's a nice foray into the realm of STEVE HACKETT in the middle of the Nursery Cryme/Moving Waves-like "På Gata" (over some awesome organ work) before he loses his patience and tries to shred with a fuzz sound in a blues-rock style that, to my ears, kind of ruins it. A better comparison would be he's really like Mike Rutherford: a decent rhythmist and ensemble player but not a stunner as a lead.

Favorite songs: a very FOCUS-like 7. "Hemifrån" (7:51) with the best HACKETT-like work and piano playing on the album (9/10); the classically oriented finale 8. "Sebastian" (4:31) (Bach?) (9/10); the diverse epic, 2. På Gata" (14:10) (8/10); the syrupy Camel-like title song, 3. "Blå Vardag" (6:57) (8/10); the jazzy little 4. "Glånglåt" (2:53) (8/10); the keyboard-dominated FOCUS-like 5. "Den Vita Tranans Väg (7:19) (8/10), and; the more fusion-oriented 6. "Björnstorp" (6:18) with its tasteful drum solo and ending electric guitars' duel (8/10).

Definitely a solid contribution to prog world and one of Sweden's earliest. Consistent with interesting, mature symphonic compositions performed at a high CAMEL-like level.