Album Review of
Never So Strange And Alone Again

Written by Robert Silverstein
September 23, 2021 - 6:20pm EDT
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Having found critical success with the 2021 release of Bangatan by singer-singer songwriter Fia Ekberg, Sweden's Kakafon Records returns with Aldrig Lika Konstig Och Ensam Igen (Never So Strange And Alone Again) by Swedish vocalist Helena Davidsson. Like Ms. Ekberg, singer Helena Davidsson is quite a talented singer and lyricist. For the 8 tracks on her album, Ms. Davidsson teams with her co-writer & melodicist Sofia Petterson and the result is yet another appealing album of international pop featuring Swedish lyrics. At the core of the studio sound is the production and guitar of Sweden’s great jazz guitar ace Henrik Cederblom while the album is further fleshed out by a range of musicians including Ms. Davidsson’s co-composer Sofia Petterson.

Described as a mix of contemporary Swedish singer-songwriter sounds with a touch of jazzy improv, the album no doubt benefits from the production, mixing and guitar sounds of producer Henrik Cederblom. Several other vocalists, male and female voices, gives the album a kind of jazzy, swinging late 1960s pop edge. Speaking about the unique sound of the album, producer Cederblom adds, “Helena initiated every session by reading the lyrics out loud. We all took our personal experience of the words with us into our performance.” With its mix of breezy, cabaret-type pop and jazzy improv, Helena Davidsson’s Aldrig Lika Konstig Och Ensam Igen (Never So Strange And Alone Again) makes for a most appealing album of wide-screen Swedish pop.