Håkan Hellström
13 CDS
Dolores
In 1989 Jakob Hellman released his debut album "...och det stora havet" in Sweden, an album that's still considered by a lot of Swedes to be the best debut album (and by some, like me, "the best album" period) ever to come out of Sweden. What has made this album stand out even more is the fact that Hellman never made another record, and for a while he disappeared completely from the Swedish music scene, only to resurface a few years ago for some live shows. When Håkan Hellström released "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg" in 2000, a lot of people fretted that he would "do a Hellman" and never released anything ever again. Now, five years later, I think we – the people who worried so much - can finally start to sleep well at nights. Not only did Håkan deliver his third excellent record ("Ett kolikbarns bekännelser") earlier this year, but in a few weeks he will release a record of leftover songs. "Tretton" is the first single of this disc (titled "Nåt gammalt, nåt nytt, nått lånat, nåt blått"). The song is a cover of Big Star's "13", and it's pretty faithful to the original (although most of the lyrics are translated to Swedish, the parts left in English could have been quite cheesy, but they fit in really well). Naturally Håkan, with his infinite charm, makes the song his own. I just hope this won't be his last album...
- Simon Tagestam