Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Beardfish
Label: Inside Out Records
Released: 2009
Running time: 76:51
Rating: 5/5
The Scandinavian peninsula is home to some of the best modern prog bands out there, like The Flower Kings, Pain of Salvation, Opeth, Karmakanic, Gazpacho, Anekdoten, and we could go on. In recent years, we absolutely can’t forget to add Beardfish to that list. They’re already turning into an institution, even though they’ve barely been around for 10 years. Of their five studio albums, the last two (Sleeping in Traffic Part One and Sleeping in Traffic Part Two – RockLine review here) can easily be filed under legendary records, “best of the best”, “crème de la crème”. Their biggest influence is Gentle Giant, the British prog rockers they get closer to with every album. Don’t get me wrong – Beardfish have no trouble keeping their own originality despite some clearly similar influences from the British legends. But the Swedish “fish-beards” stand apart from their Scandinavian peers in the genre with their greater eclecticism, their more brilliant way of switching from playful melodies to gloomy riffs, and above all with the variety of their songs, a huge range of ideas that still carry the signature sound you can recognize Beardfish by; and that’s just the musical style. The lyrics, on the other hand, are in a class of their own. Why? Read on.
Their new album “Destined Solitaire” is also packed with variety and wild black-and-white swings, and in the songs you can hear touches of jazz, folk, metal, ambient, noir, even pop; but it’s not just a mindless mash of all those ingredients, it’s a masterfully assembled mosaic that would lose its beat if you removed any single piece. The first change you notice is the length of the songs. The Swedes had a big habit of putting at least two or three tracks of 15 or even 20 minutes on every “record”. This time that’s the ceiling, and all nine songs are shorter. We’re not shortchanged at all, though, because the album still clocks in at a solid 70-plus minutes.
The opener, “Awaken the Sleeping”, is a thematic continuation of the previous two albums (Sleeping in Traffic One and Two), though musically it’s a completely different beast. Huge mood swings and some downright goofy instrumentals make the song extremely interesting, but above all different and bizarre, yet still very “Beardfish”. “Destined Solitaire”, the title track, is a bit darker, rawer and heavier than “Awaken the Sleeping”. Love and thoughts about the future (with plenty of irony and sarcasm, so no self-pity or over-the-top emotion here) are the driving forces behind the vocals, which at moments even drop into death-metal growling, definitely something totally new for both Beardfish and us listeners. The blending of musical styles and the mix of acoustic and electric guitar give the track a thoroughly black-and-white feel, which is no bad thing, since the lyrics have their bright and dark moments too (one moment the narrator longs for a lost love, the next he’s kissing and daydreaming about a beautiful life together). “Until You Comply (including Entropy)” is built on Sjöblom’s vocals, backed by standout keyboards. This existentialist song states its purpose straight out, no metaphors, no beating around the bush. The lyrics and the instrumental backdrop are both like that. The witty slide from “Until You Comply” into “Entropy” really spices up the mood, and the tempo picks up, but in a playful way, with playful lyrics to match. A big part of the song’s inventiveness comes from the drums, which come in at truly unexpected moments, when they were nowhere to be heard before; that’s the foundation of prog, of course, but here it’s even more obvious, and it still never gets annoying. Length is no problem for Beardfish this time either – the track is in two parts, but 15 minutes is definitely nothing to sneeze at.
“In Real Life There Is No Algebra” switches off the brain and goes purely on feel. Zappa-style lyrics, full of cleverly disguised mockery, are belted out over musical madness. At one point Sjöblom even raps; madness is the whole point of this track. And that’s exactly how you should listen to it if you want to hear it: crazy and without overthinking. Next comes “Where The Rain Comes In”, which, going by the title, sounds like a sad, bluesy number. But it’s far from it – the Swedish jokers wrap it all in a comic veil with completely bonkers lyrics that still hide behind a darker, more emotional vocal. The melody is mostly bouncy too, not exactly major-key, but rhythmic enough to dispel any preconception of rain as a harbinger of sadness. The song itself is a symbol of experimenting within the playground of progressive music, with rhythms, pauses, and bringing in all sorts of instruments at “progressive” moments, as well as with genres. “At Home… Watching Movies” opens with the words: “Rain is pouring down from the purple haze …”, as if the band were deliberately pulling our leg, because this short “compilation”, a kind of “mix” of strange sounds and vocals, has far more in common with the title of the previous song than that song does, and it’s also much more bluesy and minor-key than the actual “Where The Rain Comes In”.
Next up is the nearly ten-minute “Coup de Grâce”, the only fully instrumental track on the album. It’s full of gorgeous melodies and a harmonic flow between all sorts of instruments, with incredible timing shifts, which makes it truly fantastic. The title already hints at France, and the song itself paints a picture of it and drops us right into the middle of the action. So if you can’t afford a plane ticket but still want to go to Paris, “Coup de Grâce” is definitely the cheapest option. Then comes another journey, a proper flight through science, with eternal philosophical questions – “Abigail’s Questions (In an Infinite Universe)”. Probably the strangest song on the whole album, with a beginning and an end (which, according to Beardfish, can’t be said of the universe), but that’s about all we can say for certain. I’d hesitate to call it a classic Swedish track, and yet that’s what it is. The song is decorated above all by shimmering keyboards and guitar arrangements, backed by phenomenal vocals; as far as analysis goes, anything more I wrote would be too little or too vague. This is a song you have to hear, not try to put into words. The closing act of Destined Solitaire, “The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of”, is a dreamy, poetic song, this time without a trace of comic relief (or at least with very little, and it comes through the music rather than the lyrics), despite a title that breaks from the band’s traditional way of naming songs. It doesn’t stand out from the crowd of masterful predecessors, but it’s a perfect ending to an album that is without doubt a masterpiece.
With Destined Solitaire, Beardfish keep pushing their ever-better creations forward, even though topping the second part of Sleeping in Traffic was a tall order. The record is even fuller of jokey lyrics that “resemble” Frank Zappa and his gems, while the music is wildly original, with an otherness that by now has its own special stamp – “Beardfish-style” music – even if the influences of seventies symphonic prog rock can’t be ignored. Every new listen uncovers another bit of the story that slipped past you before, a detail that unravels the secret of a song even more, so repeated back-to-back spins are guaranteed, at least for individual tracks.
Where to go from here is probably a question for the Swedes, since making something better than “Destined Solitaire” is almost impossible. These Scandinavians don’t use the familiar prog formulas for success or copy successful predecessors; despite the genre label, they stay fresh, original and different, and the question is how long they can keep that up before it turns samey, monotonous, boring. But if it worked for Zappa and their idols Gentle Giant, Genesis and King Crimson, why not for them?
Lineup
Rikard Sjöblom – vocals, keyboards
David Zackrisson – guitar
Robert Hansen – bass guitar
Magnus Östgren – drums
Production
Beardfish
Tracklist
1. Awaken the Sleeping (6:01)
2. Destined Solitaire (10:53)
3. Until You Comply (including Entropy) (15:21)
4. In Real Life There Is No Algebra (4:33)
5. Where the Rain Comes In (8:29)
6. At Home… Watching Movies (1:53)
7. Coup de Grâce (9:49)
8. Abigail’s Questions (In an Infinite Universe) (9:12)
9. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (10:40)
