PAGE SÅ PASS! - EN SAMLING MED PAGE DOUBLE COMPILATION SSC RELEASE: OCTOBER 2, 2000 REVIEW: OCTOBER 13, 2000

Thank you and goodbye, Eddie Bengtsson. Well, not quite. The Vince Clarke of Sweden still operates as the very skilled song writer and vocalist in Sista mannen på jorden, thank God.
Page, Eddie's main project, takes me back to 1993. Then I, at the age of 16, saw them perform for the first time together with Elegant Machinery, at tiny Magasin 3 in Gothenburg packed to the brim with enthusiastic fans. Although I'd heard the classics ("Dansande man", "Hus av glas", "Blå fötter" and many other gems) prior to this event, this is where I embraced the Swedish duo completely.
Eddie Bengtsson's clever lyrics and personal, charismatic vocals and Marina Schiptjenko's enthusiasm and beauty by the keyboards knocked me overboard. This is also where I bought a copy of "The Lost Tapes", a limited CD release of 1000 copies many collectors search desperately for nowadays.
The brand new, and last, Page offering "Så pass! - En samling med Page" spans over twenty years of music making and three "versions" of Page. The first one, with Eddie, Marina, Anders Eliasson and Jan Adolfsson were active during the early eighties and a few tracks on "The Lost Tapes" show some of what they recorded. After this, Eddie and Marina continued as a duo until the 1995 release "Glad", when Marina left Page for Vacuum.
The third incarnation of the band was Eddie, and two guys, John Liljestrand and Michael Thornqvist, and also a springboard into the last chapter of the band. Many fans broke with Page here, due to their sound change into rougher, more traditionally built songs. The funny thing though, was that what many thought were guitars was instead Eddie trying to get his Yamaha CS-15 to sound like guitars. A sound many, myself included, found to be too far away from Page and many of the songs on the last two albums had the exact same sound in them, making them too similar.
After the release of "Helt nära", the last studio album, Eddie decided that if this album doesn't get acknowledged by the masses, nothing will. The masses didn't and Eddie only released the single "Som det var" after this.
What strikes me as sad now when I hear the two new tracks on "Så pass!" is that they are brilliant! By that I simply mean that the sound may be more conventional now, but Eddie has found the path back to the wonderful song writing of albums like "Hallå", "Page" and "Glad". A worthy ending to his career with Page, though, of course.
Twentyfour tracks from a band who will always keep a special place in my, and all syntpoppers, hearts. Do yourself a favour and get it if you can!

NIKLAS FORSBERG