Somewhere (Sweden) – Lullaby for the Common Man (single/debut album track)
ELP’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’, their take on Aaron Copeland’s slightly differently spelt original from 1934, has waited five decades to be punned.
Now that job has fallen to the Swedish prog-rock band Somewhere, which has just released their first album, ‘Bridges,’ and as well as being an album track this is the first single from it.
Bridges – making them and burning them – seems to be a common theme in prog. One of The Nice’s albums, a joint live/studio one, was called ‘Five Bridges’ and the theme cropped up regularly through the late 60s until the mid-80s, when British prog, at least, expired.
Copeland’s original work was a musical tribute honouring those engaged in World War II but here Somewhere, which has its roots in the prog rock of that aforementioned era, have written a song about powerlessness in the face of propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.
“Everything has consequences/Never think that we don´t know/Everything has consequences…” is the mantra, together with the closing lines,
‘Stare straight at the screen/it will replace your dreams/…now close your eyes and go to sleep…”
Chilling words that channel big Arnie in Total Recall and, more chillingly, the 1973 movie Soylent Green, in which the elderly are shown a panorama of the world’s most beautiful places while they are quietly put down and then turned into processed food wafers.
Here it seems to mean that while you might not realise it the online world is dictating how you think and act.
There were dark stories to be told by the 1970s bands of course, especially Genesis with their encapsulation of Rachmanism – the intimidation and exploitation of tenants by unscrupulous landlords -(‘Get ‘em out by Friday’), the beheading of a young boy by his playmate with a croquet mallet and his return as a dying old man desperate to consummate his relationship with his killer as his life slips away (‘The Musical Box’) and an enormous plant terrorising London (‘The Return of the Giant Hogweed’).
What strikes me every time about Somewhere is their capacity to recreate those notes, chords, progressions and arrangement so amazingly accurately (and also inserting a short Steve Howe solo from Yes here) without ever prompting you to think that you might actually be listening to an unreleased Genesis track.
A cleverly worked out song in every way.
‘Lullaby for the Common Man’ was written by Somewhere’s former singer John Thelin, and guitarist Fredrik Cerha.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomewhereProg
Fjöll (Iceland) – Holur (single)
Fjöll have been around for a long time, going through various incarnations and personnel changes and when we previously checked them out a couple of years ago with a rare excursion into an English language song we were tempted to classify them very loosely as a soft rock band with plenty of melody.
This time they have returned to their Icelandic language roots so I’m unable to make any comment at all on the lyrics. ‘Holur’ translates as ‘Holes’ and that is the best I can offer you. They might be reciting the Icelandic telephone directory for all I know.
Incidentally, have you ever seen that directory? They don’t list people by their surnames because there aren’t any; they are nearly all patronyms (you are either the son or daughter of your father, so I would be David Jamesson). So Icelandic phone books list people by their given names, alphabetically.
Fun fact of the day completed, the structure of this song (I’ve gone for the full length version rather than the radio edit) is of gently syncopated guitar and keyboard notes they expand out into a sound that isn’t that far removed from that of Coldplay, enlightened by Highasakite in the prominent vocals.
Interspersed within it is a guitars solo of fast picked tuneful lead guitar over rhythm guitar and then towards the end we are treated to a second and slightly wilder guitar riff that plays it out.
I don’t think Fjöll are trying to do anything groundbreaking here, just writing and playing a track that is both easy listening and there to be analysed and discussed in more depth by those that prefer to do that.
They easily satisfy both sets of needs.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hljomsveitinfjoll
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fjollmusic/
