KENT MAX 500 SINGLE RCA/SONYBMG RELEASE: FEBRUARY 9, 2005 REVIEW: FEBRUARY 8, 2005

I really didn't think this could happen again. Although I worshiped Kent's latest full-length "Vapen & ammunition" and have played it ever since it was released, I actually thought another Kent song and album wouldn't be such a big deal for me.
But when "Max 500" washes over me, with all its rock'n'roll attitude, lyrics in Swedish about a cold and lonely place and pop sensitivity, I fall in love with Kent all over again. The forlorn world this - the greatest rock/pop band in Sweden - inhabits is the same as it has been on the last three albums and the drive in the music is easily recognisable, so it could easily be dismissed as "yet another gloomy Kent song". But there is a freshness again, a hunger and that talent that takes the heritage from Depeche Mode, U2 and The Cure and transforms it into something totally unique and takes the evolution that brought forth "Vapen & ammunition" to another, darker place.
Musically, this is a mid-tempo song with a pumping bass and with guitars that could have been borrowed from (often over-looked) The Church. The xylophone that surrounds the chorus and ties the song together sends chills of well being down my spine and the voice of singer and mastermind Jocke Berg dwells on the loneliness of existence.
Maybe I have been suckered by the cool references to Keats, Baudelaire and Mary Shelley and been lured to think this is greater than it really is (Jocke Berg sings, translated from Swedish, "There are little tricks that make people give you more than you're worth"), but I honestly think this is the best pop song released in Swedish since, since... the last time Kent released an album. Maybe it's even better. It sure as hell is darker and gloomier, and if this is a taste of what the album "Du & jag döden" (You & Me Death) will be like, there isn't room for another mainstream rock and pop album with alternative roots this year.
I mean, if slow, almost "Isola" or "Verkligen" sounding B-sides "M" and "Välgärningar & illdåd" were omitted because they didn't make the cut, then the material on the new album must be exceptional! Sweet "M" with its guitar heavy choruses especially catches my fancy, and I have listened to it almost as much as I have listened to "Max 500".
So, yes, as you can tell, I am in love again. I didn't think this could happen - I'm a grown, responsible man, goddamit! But I am actually counting the days until "Du & jag döden" is released.

KALLE MALMSTEDT

SWEDISH AD