Swedish Funk Connection: One of The Coolest Retro Rock Projects I've Ever Heard!

Swedish Funk Connection

is...

Christer Lärk (vocals), 

Peder Jonsson (drums), 

Peter Johansson (keyboards), 

Mats Johansson (gutiars) 

Berra Holmgren (bass).

Courtesy of AOR Heaven Records.

This is a release for the ages. Music like this isn't being made anymore. And if it is, the production is typically wrought with compression and mindless effects. This collection of 10 stellar songs is made for music fans. Fans of a genre that has faded to near extinction. Adult Oriented Rock, or West Coast Rock was birthed in the late 1970's and sputtered out in the middle of the next decade. After that period, some bands continued to make AOR/West Coast while adding more keyboards and employing a few studio tricks. 

Swedish Funk Connection's 1987 picks up where the core of the genre left off. The album title is accurate. The music is an amalgam of funky riffs married with pristine atmospherics. The vocal arrangements jump through the speakers. The musicianship is both lucid and precise at the same time. The first song "This Night Will Last Forever" is a lost art of smooth, clean instrumentation and soaring vocals. The melodic quotient is immediate and isn't contrived or incomplete. The hooks grab with urgency, the singing is rooted in the "climb the heights" tradition. The keyboard solo here is already worth what the CD might cost you on Amazon. Next, a blazing guitar solo, followed by a reprise of the giant hook, along with the call and answer vocal response the song began with. And that's just the first song!

"Lucky" is track two. Here, the boys show off their funkier side with a groovy Motown guitar intro followed by a keyboard drenched 80's joyride. The vocal blend gives the song more cache and the bridge is a well thought out twist and turn. The solos are impeccable.

"Out of My Way" has a contemporary Heartbreakers feel circa "Learning To Fly". Add some rich vocal textures and slide guitar and you've got what rock radio used to call "a hit". "Stay With Me" borrows from Toto's Seventh One period, but also takes as much from 80's English pop-rock. This marriage is in tact pretty much everywhere on this record. "Too Much Money" is a more guitar drive excursion that hints at Golden Earring and Russ Ballard but still manages to have it's own melodic personality.

"Somewhere Somehow" is reminiscent of Sting's "If I Ever Lose Faith In You" but still is able to travel it's own path of musical wonder. If adult contemporary stations here in the states wanted to have a real playlist, this would be on it. "Life Is Beautiful" finds that Jeff Lynne-Full Moon Fever groove but adds big soaring vocals along with a first class melody. "Love's Such A Beautiful Thing" finds SFC at their funkiest. A big keyboard-horn style intro, which then settles into a late night dance groove peppered with synth and guitar ear candy. 

"Stay Away From The Dark" is a straight ahead rocker with a slightly more dark and serious melody. But the hooks persist and the vocals soar effortlessly into the higher altitudes. The guitar work on this track is gritty. "Million Reasons" is the last song on 1987. The closest thing on the album to a power ballad. The soft instrumentation and the persistently rich vocal arrangement is a perfect way to cool down at the end of this unique and fabulous musical journey. 

It's not an understatement to say 1987 is a summary of how music once was and how it could be again. This album wins on every level. Writing. Production. Genre. Variety. Singing. Playing. It's all there. Swedish Funk Connection shows us how to go back in time while making new melodies for the current age.