BOB HUND STENÅLDERN KAN BÖRJA ALBUM SILENCE RELEASE: MARCH 23, 2001 REVIEW: MARCH 31, 2001

A review of bob hund usually consists of extensive quotes from their lyrics. And the reviewer's opinion about whether or not bob hund used to be better back in the old days.
The lyrics are written and sung by Tomas Öberg in the distinctive Swedish Skåne dialect, and have been pushed into the forefront. There is nothing wrong with that. Few bands in Sweden manage to come up with anything like the frustrated, impressionistic poetry of bob hund. But his voice pushes the inventive soundscapes of the songs into the background. In my humble opinion, these soundscapes are what really deserve the limelight.
Instrumental work of bob hund has the quality of frantic, playful post and kraut rock. Extraordinary guitar players Johnny Essing and Conny Nimmersjö work magic and life to what have sounded static or calculated with any other guitar player. Otherworldly bleeps and bloops blend in smoothly and sweet music ensues.
While I enjoy Öberg's vocals, I sometimes wish bob hund would make an entire album of instrumentals. This is partly because "Stenåldern kan börja" is more lacking in plain old good songs than the former records. The slower songs just sound tired, while a couple of fast numbers do retain the bands powerful trademark progressive punk sound. Knowing this band, each and every song probably rocks like hell on stage. On record, some of them, like "Dansa efter min pipa" tend to sound irritating rather than intense.
The concluding instrumental song, "Invandraren" is precisely the kind of material I've been hoping for throughout the album. It should be used as a theme tune to some terrific retro futuristic space opera.
bob hund are capable of enormous variety. Having put out four full length albums of this variety, perhaps it is time to narrow the scope a little bit and change the focus?

MATTIAS HUSS