Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion «We Are the Truth» (2021)
Sometimes it seems that the world we live in today is about to collapse, and there is no room for music in it. But in such a hard time the role of art, giving help and support, is as important as never. The fifth studio album by the Swedish band Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion «We Are the Truth» is exactly like that, filled with energy and optimism, beauty and drive, deep reflections on the fate of the world with a subtlety and a touch of humor. And this is HFMC’s most progressive rock album. Progressive not so much in terms of complexity (still there is plenty of), but also as a successful combination of progressive compositional techniques with rock drive and a strong melodies. Generally, the sound of «We Are the Truth» is a bit softer, more artsy, with subtle references to the grandmasters of prog rock. The arrangements are full of exquisite details, and the compositions are filled up with developments, sometimes unpredictable and dizzying. HFMC’s ability to surprise, inspire, discover new worlds (and re-discover ourselves for listeners) is simply extraordinary. It is interesting to listen to the album over and over again, immersing yourself in music as an exciting journey.
The band’s leader Hasse Fröberg – singer of the cult Swedish progressive formation The Flower Kings – created his own band Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion in 2008. It’s rare to see a team with such a steady development trajectory. From the hard-n-art of the first two albums “FuturePast” (2010) and “Powerplay” (2012) they moved towards the “progressiveness” of the milestone disc “HFMC” (2015) and the conceptual “Parallel Life” (2019), which, at that time of release, felt like the peak of HFMC’s creative career. But «We Are the Truth» sets up the new heights. And although there are no 20-minute epics, such multi-part tracks as «Other Eyes» and «The Constant Search for Bravery» (in my opinion, the highest points of the album) are on par with TFK and even the almighty Yes. And the final track, “A Spiritual Change”, is as good as those two in terms of scale and depth. At the same time, the album contains pieces typical for HFMC – for example, the opening of the album «powerful action» song «To Those Who Rule the World» (released as first album promo video) or blues & hard rock «Shaken And Stirred». There are ballads – the soulful “We Are the Truth” or making homage to 60s classics “Every Second Counts”. And there are hit songs that stand out for some special catchiness, the ability to stick in memory, almost pop melodic qualities: this is the spiritually uplifting «Rise Up» (the second video single) and the absolutely incomparable «Yoko», in which the band’s melodic abilities seems to reach unimaginable heights. With a common proggy vector, the style of the album constantly strays into something unexpected – from funk to reggae, from bossa nova to punk, from heavy metal to rock and roll, «classics» and quite a pop music. It seems like a kind of puzzle, a guessing game that the musicians are playing with us, but all the pieces fits in and makes a colorful and multidimensional picture.
And the main point is that the album, while not being deliberately conceptual, nevertheless is a whole entity, held together by semantic and musical threads (some compositions follow without pauses, there is also a short framing theme). And its general idea is that the world in which we live today can be gloomy, dangerous, unfair, but it’s made by us – ordinary people, friends, brothers and sisters. We, all of us, are the truth. So the name of the album, explained in a self-titled song and it’s not a loud statement and a praise to ourselves (like we’re always right). Of course, you can catch an implicit dialogue with The Flower Kings («The Truth Will Set You Free»), but the point is that truth is power itself, it is easy and pleasant to say the truth and nothing can oppose it.
«We Are the Truth» is also the most collaborative of all HFMC’s works. This time, not only the drummer Ola Strandberg took part in songwriting (he co-wrote the music and lyrics of «Other Eyes», wrote the music of «The Constant Search for Bravery», music and lyrics of «A Spiritual Change»), but also the new bass player Sampo Axelsson, who co-wrote music of “Yoko”. The rest of the band, guitarist Anton Lindsjö and keyboardist Kjell Haraldsson, added colors to the music with their magnificent solos and sounds. In general, the Companions are driving a full force, and after the strengthening of the line-up by Sampo Axelsson, a bassist with extensive professional experience (he also plays pedal steel guitar), the HFMC have reached a new level. And Strandberg, who first showed his vocal talent on 2015′ album of (a part of «Pages», penned by him), sings much more here. Ola’s soft, kind of «familiar» voice perfectly counters Hasse’s rich and rockier vocals; this combination of two singers additionally makes HFMC similar to TFK. Fröberg’s main vocals, as always, are striking in its strength and diversity, he is capable of the widest range of emotions from tenderness to fury, there is some kind of catching nerve in his voice. The same can be said for the entire album, recorded at the super-staffed Nevo Studios with sound engineer and bandmate Petrus Königsson. Of course, then the recording took a long time to finish and finetune, but the atmosphere of common work and involvement in it is felt so much.
(You can put an end here. But…)
I would like, using the opportunity to endlessly print signs on a white digital sheet, to go through all the compositions in more detail. The beginning of the album immediately attracts attention. The sounds of tuning starts, then the major chords of the keyboards scattered across the registers, as if the musician is choosing the right timbre, someone is whistling a melody… And then a loud voice announces: «Ladies and gentlemen, We are the truth!» We seem to find ourselves in the middle of some kind of performance. It opens with «To Those Who Rule the World» – a rather typical HFMC rock tune with a bright sweeping vocal melody (sharp upward jumps at the end of phrases sticks in memory immediately), powerful hymn-like chorus, melancholic keyboard parts, and at the same time a strong touch of funk in the accompaniment. “To Those Who Rule the World” is an appeal to the powers of this world and also to all of us not to give up, spiced with a bit of humor (mocking “fair” music in one of the verses). The song is full of energy, but after an inspirational guitar solo somewhat in Brian May vein and a pompous reprise, it ends with a dramatic bolero-like coda. (In the video the whole band is beating this rhythm on drums together). Combined with the lamento intonations of the guitar, this has something of marche funebre. Is the world rotten to the ground and cannot be saved?
«Other Eyes» is welcoming with syncopated guitar chords. Again, this is one of the most “progressive” compositions on the album. Its main «spinning» refrain is slightly reminiscent of The Flower Kings. But every episode, every chorus or bridge offers something new. In the vocal section, the syncopated rhythm turns into a straight one – like a step of a march, moving forward, albeit restrained, but steady, the voice echoes the invocatory counterparts of the guitar. The softer, lyrical chorus is soothing. And the next, more agitated section begins with a bright and inspirational solo by Anton Lindsjö. It’s a good example how he puts up his «message» – gradually playing around the theme, rising from the lowest register to the highest, adding expression… But suddenly everything stops. We hear distant rumbles of thunder and the sound of rain. The quiet acoustic part of the composition begins. For me it seems like a positive continuation of the song «Rain» from the previous album (dedicated to the memory of Hasse’s father). Voices echo with each other, guitar strings tinkle idyllically, more instruments are coming, and now the straightforward rhythm from the first part is returning, the song flows into a reprise, the whirlwind of life continues, and you understand how great it is to be able to look at things with other eyes – to see fear and hope, the darkening horizon and the sky with diamonds… but no, this is from another story. Great song, one of my favorites on the album.
“Rise Up” is a pure hit, with a tenacious three-note keyboard playing, a gloomy main section (oh, those descending progressions of minor chords!) and just a breathtakingly uplifting chorus with Kjell Haraldson’s ELO’ish vignette counterpoints especially worth mentioning. (Wish they would be a bit higher in the mix though, just to hear them better!) But next turn, on a second verse, HFMC stumbles to a reggae, and even more tricky – to dub! And the last soaring «Rise Up!» chorus sounds so powerful that you understand – the victory of light over darkness is inevitable, you just have to wait a little. (I will not speak about the clip with pink unicorn-shaped clouds, it’s something not for people who lack a sense of humor, but to have one is an important quality!)
«The Constant Search for Bravery» (Fröberg / Strandberg) is a true gem of the album, a song about finding yourself and your place in this world. Opening with a delicate guitar-acoustic intro in the spirit of Rush («A Farewell to Kings»), the composition slightly reminds of the great Canadians by percussive rolls here and there. Ola Strandberg sings in the beginning: his voice, in contrast to the more “rocky” vocals of Hasse, sounds very soulful and warm. The melody curls smoothly and sweetly (albeit at 7/8), gradually expanding into a joyful choir chorus a la Yes. The second section, more lively and dynamic, even with heavy elements, is performed by the main singer. There is an absolutely magical moment in the chorus: the tempo slows down, and against the background of a procession of minor, augmented and other strange chords, an expressively dramatic melody unveils (with the words “Now when all the streets are burning / We have come to the point of turning «). Then the guitar continues the theme, and the vocal part is further sharpened by dissonant intonations. At this point, my heart aches every time, and you think – how can you compose something like that? Bravo, Ola! And even in the coda itself, where the joyous chorus returns, the dark colors appear again.
“Yoko”, which is, as one can guess, dedicated to Yoko Ono. The idea of title came because of low and squeaky synthesizer sounds in the introduction – it reminded the voice of Yoko, the way how she sometimes treated it on the recordings. This is one of the most inspired songs in whole HFMC’s catalogue. And not the first one dedicated to famous artists – «Genius» from 2015′ album was written about Freddie Mercury. Here it seems to be about much more controversial person, and the song is like that – it’s about love and hate, recognition and oblivion, happiness and terrible loss. And, most importantly, there is a soaring, fluid melody with descending endings of phrases, full of passion and beauty. A short chant «Y.O.K.O.» gives the chorus a light-hearted touch of rumba or flamenco, but then comes a heavy riff and it grounds and weights it down – after all, this is a song about Yoko and her dramatic fate! And the energetic instrumental section of this song reminds me the Russian band Autograph, namely their «Requiem for John Lennon» (an unexpected coincidence!) – «Y.O.K.O.» guitar theme with a rising fifth inception evokes associations with the vocal melody from that song.
Finally, the title track. One would expect it to be another great «rocker», but no, this is a lyric ballad, turning into a prog anthem. The opening fluid piano chords and a soft-sounding bass theme immediately tune us to the poetic mood, and the gentle vocal melody resembles a lullaby, albeit with a bravura chorus. However, there are also sophisticated instrumental sections with vortex-like solos (a sudden, like a tornado, interlude at 13/8), and the song ends with an equally unexpected coda, in which a Jobim-style piano bossa nova is swept away by a hot-tempered punk-n-roll, and in at the end it sounds like some kind of avant metal. In general, such is the truth of life.
A sharp contrast – «Shaken and Stirred», hello to Led Zeppelin and personally to Robert Plant, who has a solo album of that title. On each of HFMC’s “latter” albums, there is such a heavy piece, reminiscent of the legacy of Spellbound (an 80s glam metal band featuring Fröberg and Strandberg). The slide guitar intro rumbles in old blues manner. Besides quite unoffending keyboard bits in the beginning, is just as restless: as if you’ve been grabbed by the scruff of the neck and shaken quite well. Especially when a speedy techno-metal chorus with a syncopated rhythm comes – almost like a disco! Indian motives in a semi-acoustic episode once again remind of the «oriental» colors of LZ, and towards the end there are two shiny solos – Hammond and – for the first time in HFMC – bass! Sampo Axelsson, in his own words, paid tribute to bassist John Entwistle who he admires. The clang, the rumble, the roaring strings – everything is for you!
“Every Second Counts” is a touching song about how you can’t wait another second, because the future is already here. And this is more than subtle «greeting», now to John Lennon with his «Imagine» – from the swaying piano chords to the Bach-like trumpets in the coda. There is an interesting story about the recording: after finishing all the main recordings the band had a good party with a “whiskey-buffet”, then returned to the studio and played another take with different arrangement… that was chosen for the album! A nice, sweet, kind-hearted song.
And the finale. «A Spiritual Change» is written entirely by Strandberg. This is philosophical and almost epic (in fact not – only 11 minutes!) song. It opens with perhaps too sweet bells. But then everything is in order – mighty keyboard/guitar themes, choral pads, complex harmonies, time changes, and drum breaks echo the bolero from «To Those Who Rule the World». The song is about how the spirit will overcome everything and break «per aspera ad astra». In the middle part, we hear Ola’s soft voice again on the background of flowing Genesis-like keyboard motifs. His voice is like that very spirit, singing from above. But, in order to bring down the pathos again, there are little Brazilian piano motifs breaks in after prog riffs just before the reprise, and Kjell sends greetings to J.S. Bach, playing a small piece in style of his virtuoso preludes. 
All this happens in the blink of an eye, leaving just a smile on the face. And then, in the powerful slow-motion coda with soaring tremolating guitar theme, we can feel the spirit of TFK. Full relief and catharsis (and here is also an Easter egg for HFMC fans – a short quote from 2015′ “Pages”). In general, everything is as it should be in a real good prog album. And only at the very end, as if already outside the brackets, goes the familiar discordant whistle sound. We already heard it somewhere, right? Oh right – at the very beginning (and in «A Spiritual Change»!) The show is over, the candles are out, the doors are locked. Until new amazing meetings!
What else to say? Perhaps only that if I could, I would give this album 11 out of 10. And so – just the highest score, and the best prog album of this year.
Elena Savitskaya
Photo — official site and facebook-community of the band.
Progressive rock 10/10
GlassVille Records
10
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