Here’s a thing. Lars Edvall used to be a rapper! Not only that, he participated, in the group Crosstalk, in the early rounds of Eurovision selection in 1999, what is known as the Melodifestivalen in Sweden, thus becoming the first rapper in its history.
That reminds me that we had a rapper in Eurovision too; Daz Sampson, in the Grand Final in 2006, and ‘Teenage Life’ should have bloody well won it. The fact it didn’t was put down to Daz being “ahead of his time” and if that was the case where does that leave Lars? He must have been from another planet.
And Lars is a musical polymath, to boot. He and his co-writer Mattias Reimer had six more entries in the competition after that. Then, after a long career of writing for other artists in the 2010s he decided to make more music for fun with an alter ego, called Sad Jack, who has released three albums and numerous EPs and singles.
He created a platform to release music primarily written for himself and went on to try all kinds of music – rock, choral pieces, pop opera, arranging for symphony orchestras and even working on a TV talent shoe – you name it, and Sad Jack has released more niche indie pop, too.
We might reasonably call him a Sad Jack of all trades.
On top of all that Lars moves in the same circles as some other slightly off the wall Swedish contributors to NMC such as Daniel Östersjö and Eric Palmqvist. That definitely counts in his favour.
The recording of ‘Another step in time’ proceeded at pace and no other musicians got a look in this time as Lars plays all the instruments and sings all the vocals on the song, although that was not the initial intention.
It’s a grandiose title for a grandiose song; big, brash and in your face. The sort of thing I’d expect to hear wrapping up the show at the Royal Variety Performance from the London Palladium.
He describes it as “a grand separation story about fighting on, while the main character in the song looks away across the abyss of time and space, perhaps with a certain longing, towards the path the other party has chosen in their life.”
That seems to lie somewhere between ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Road to Nowhere’.
The song starts off with sort of explosive effect that might accompany the completion of the greatest magician’s trick of all time, followed by the catchiest of simple, four note melodies on a synthesiser.
Once the rabbit’s out of the hat it instantly morphs into one of those power ballads that US bands used to specialise in during the 1980s.
I’m thinking particularly of Foreigner with ‘I don’t want to live without you’ and especially ‘I want to know what love is’; songs that reveal a feeble response to the challenge of the male/female relationship long before it became fashionable to scrutinise it, in song, poetry or prose.
The sort of songs that had Europeans asking, just what is wrong with the blokes in America?
Here, in the very first verse Lars sings,
“There’s no hope this time…
We’ve only just begun…(a nod to The Carpenters?)…
The writing’s on the wall tonight.”
C’mon Lars, Man Up and save that relationship.
But I’ll tell you this; he does it with a song that is Foreigner 10.
‘Nuff said.
Find him on:
Website: https://www.larsedvall.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lars.edvall
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larsedvall/
