Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion - HFMC - 2015
“HFMC the third Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion album”
intro
For the first time on progVisions; Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion. The Swedish singer and guitarist released in the eighties the two albums “Breaking The Spell” (1984) and “Rocking Reckless” (1985) and after touring with the bands SpellBound and Solid Blue, Hasse joined The Flower Kings in 1997 ... I have your attention now! In the year 2008 Hasse decided it was time to form his own band. One of the reasons was that The Flower Kings would have some years off and was not recording new studio material. Another reason was that Hasse had composed some material that was not fitting the The Flower Kings formula. So far his band released 2 albums; “FuturePast” (2010) and “Powerplay” (2012). When The Flower Kings returned into the progscene after some years of absence, he of a sudden found himself in two bands. The new album of Hasse Fröberg & Musical Companion is simply called “HFMC”.
line-up
Thomas Thomsson - bass; Ola Strandberg - drums; Kjell Haraldsson - keyboards; Anton Lindsjo - lead guitar; Hasse Fröberg - vocals, guitar
review
The theme of the album has something to do with time. You will notice this not only by the titles of some of the songs but also because in the first track “Seconds” and the last track “Minutes” you can hear the sound of a ticking clock. In between of those short tracks you will get one hour of great progressive rock music that will be warmly welcomed by all the fans of The Flower Kings. The musical pallet of the music is much broader but most of the tracks has the musical and compositional quality of the best The Flower Kings material.
You can find the following tracks on this album; “Seconds” (1:47), “Can't stop the clock” (7:22), “Everything can change” (5:13), “Pages” (15:23), “Genius” (5:48), “In the warmth of the evening” (10:42), “Someting worth dying for” (5:31), “Someone else's fault” (10:14), “Minutes” (1:08).
“Can't stop the clock” is an up tempo rock monster with a lot of rhythm changes and beautiful melodic moments. Food for The Flower Kings fans. “Everything can change” with it's catchy vocal refrains is more pop oriented and has some Beatles influences. The longest track of the album is called “Pages” and is one of the many highlights of the album. A long piece of music with a great diversity in moods and instrumental passages. In the vocal refrains I hear some Yes influences (Trevor Rabin period). After this prog track of epic proportions “Genius” is a delicious ballad with acoustic guitars, delicate sung vocals and beautiful melodies.
“In the warmth of the evening”, one of the three long tracks with a duration above the ten minutes, is one of my personal favorites of this great album. Because of it's diversity, the melodies and great instrumental moments. I have to mention the beautiful guitar and keyboards parts. In the shorter and more rock oriented “Something worth dying for” you can enjoy some heavy guitar parts.
The third long track is called “Someone else's fault” and is more my cup of tea. The track opens with the most beautiful melodic guitar melody of the album. Also you find some delicious synth and organ parts on this diverse track that has some jazz fusion elements before an abrupt rhythm change is showing the more rock side of the band. But the musical styles of this track are going everywhere ... It is sometimes a little bit confusing for the listener ... Are you still listening to the same song? In the end that beautiful melodic guitar part is returning and gives me goose bumps ... What a great melody before the sound of the ticking clock (“Minutes”) is closing this remarkable album.
conclusion
Hasse Fröberg and his Musical Companion has surprised me with their third album “HFMC”. It is one of the best albums I have heard this year ... You will say that the year is only a few months old ... But it is really a great album which not only will appeal to rock fans but also to the fans of progressive rock. And then I am thinking about all the The Flower Kings fans. For you it is simply a must buy!