The Plan
Walking for gold
Razzia Records
The Plan started out as Broder Daniel's Theodor Jensen's side project. Their first self-titled album (released 2001) had a bunch of great songs on it, but overall it had more charm than actual good songs, and I found their second album ("Embrace me beauty" from 2004) very disappointing. On their (or rather "his", since Jensen is the only member now) third album, the melodies are stronger and it feels much less contrived than before. It's not all as good as some Swedish reviews have made it out to be though - some parts are not that inspiring, but it's pretty pleasant and, as an album, it works very well. "Bus", with its enchanting pace, is the song I keep playing the most. Lyrically and musically, the album is in Håkan Hellström (Jensen's former bandmate) territory (listen, for an example, to the intro to "Stay awhile"), except that the lyrics are, of course, in English and it never reaches the same heights as Hellström's songs. Jensen's voice is almost as charming as Hellström's though, mainly due to both of them hardly being in "classical measures" very talented singers (who cares!), but ignoring this and bellowing away nevertheless. I also like to think that "Walk for gold" can be seen as a testament against a cynical music industry who tend to ostracize any artist whose first album isn't an instant classic.
- Simon Tagestam
