When it comes to reviewing music I have some fairly rigid self-imposed rules, and one of these is that unless there is a really good reason I will review music in the order in which it was received so that I am always clearing the oldest first. For any other IT geeks out there I am running FIFO, but when this came my way I knew that it just wasn’t going to happen and it was on the player as soon as possible. Back in 2011 Tommy ReinXeed put together a band to perform cover versions of songs by ABBA, Roxette and Ace Of Base, and it has to be said that it was an absolute triumph. I wasn’t the only one who loved it and it topped the chart in Sweden, and did so well worldwide that there was enough demand for another power metal take on Swedish songs.
This time around they have covered songs by ABBA (7 of the 12), The Cardigans, Robyn, Da Buzz, Meja and Loreen. Now, I have to confess that I don’t know the originals of all of these, and that may have impacted the way that I feel about this album, in that possibly there wasn’t really enough room for a follow-up. When I heard the debut I absolutely loved it, with power metal versions of songs that I knew and loved, but there are few here that really fire. The album starts with “Dancing Queen” and they should never have bothered, honestly. But, it is one of ABBA’s most famous songs so that is probably why it was covered. However, I couldn’t help feeling that for the first album they took their time and chose the songs that best fitted the power metal treatment but painted themselves into a corner by calling it ‘Swedish Hitz’ so the follow-up had to also just take songs from that country.
It isn’t an awful album, but more of one where the listener will play it just once or twice, smile while playing it, but then leave it on the shelf until they have friends around and they get it out for the novelty value.
www.swedish-hitz.com
