SLEEPING IN TRAFFIC - PART ONE

Beardfish are a 4 piece from Sweden and play progressive rock of the highest quality. Excellent musicianship on songs with many twists and turns, though not complex in the way Dream Theater are for example. Their sound whilst displaying many characteristics of classic 70's Prog has their own style bringing it up to date for the 21st Century.

The band are good and very tasteful players, never overplaying but able to display their skills when needed. Vocalist Rikard Sjoblom has an excellent distinctive voice, quite mellow sounding but the powers there if he needs it. He also contributes guitar, keyboards, percussion and even the occasional accordion. The rest of the band are no slouches though and follow the subtle changes of the songs with ease.

Short instrumental opener "..On the Verge of Sanity" leads into the excellent "Sunrise" and one of my favourite tracks on the album, but to be honest they rarely put a foot wrong throughout an album full of highlights. "Roulette" at just over 12 minutes is the longest track on the album and if you didn't already know they were from Sweden you could probably have a good guess from the European sound to this song. Nicely positioned in the centre of the album the tone is taken right down with the beautiful "Dark Poet" which is followed by the Bluesy "Harmony".

The album finishes with "Same Old Song (Sunset)" revisiting the refrain of "Sunrise" towards the end; an excellent way to close an album almost certain to be in my top 10 2007 releases. Buying up the back catalogue is now a must for me and I can't recommend this album highly enough.