Coming up: A confession, doom and hope hand in hand, a brilliant cover version, superbly melancholic pop and a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer in a leading role. It’s all here on Jonathan Johansson’s ‘En Hand I Himlen’ which is safe to already announce one of 2009s best albums.
Well, the confession isn’t really part of the album. That’s me apologizing for not doing my research when I first began sharing my enthusiasm for this Swede, because as it has turned out this is not his debut album. It might be fair to say that ‘En Hand I Himlen’ (“A hand in heaven”) is Johansson’s solo debut, but fact is that he released the album ‘Ok, Ge Mig Timmarna’ in 2005 with the band Hjältar.
Back then guitars were a driving force, but when Jonathan Johansson got his hands on aforementioned synthesizer a year and a half ago he and fellow songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Johan Eckeborn more or less dropped a year’s worth of songwriting and started all over. To stunning effect.
One source of inspiration is revealed in the ace remake of Tears For Fears classic ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’, here ‘Alla Vill Ha Hela Världen’ loaded with the beautiful airy melancholy that, along with his master grip on the good pop song, is the compelling core of Johansson’s universe.
A universe with more than one dimension, both musically and literally, with his upbringing in a very religious home in Malmö reading in the lyrics. However, Johansson is not out to missionize. Instead he investigates human inadequacy in the tension field between our behavior in the physical realm and a spiritual dimension with equal measures of doom and hope, beauty and despair.
Musically this conflict is reflected both within and between the awesome dance floor ready pop of the title track, ‘Sent För Oss’ and the above Tears For Fears cover and the achingly marvelous counters ‘Innan Vi Faller’, ‘Du Sa’ and ‘Psalm Noll Noll’ which brings the exceptional pop proceedings to a gentle halt and Jonathan Johansson delivering us from all evil.
Genre: Pop
Who: Jonathan Johansson
Album: En Hand I Himlen
Label: Hybris
Year: 2009
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish
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