Tummel - Payback Time
With "Payback Time", Tummel took a decisive step closer to the pop/rock/disco scene, adding a vocalist and broadening the band's musical influences even further. Words from the press:
"Think about the band playing on while the Titanic goes down. Think of some of Joel Gray's bitchier numbers in Cabaret. Think of Josephine Baker at her most outrageous taking Paris by storm. Think of a bunch of crazy Swedes with no inhibitions whatsoever getting together and letting everyone have it, right between the eyes. That might give an inkling of the tone of Tummel's Payback Time. [...] It's somewhere between tango and klezmer, but it could be straight out of some Paris bistro ca. 1927, and it's no holds barred. Jens Friis-Hansen's vocals are right on the edge, a position they maintain pretty much throughout what follows, and the instrumentalists keep right up there with him. [...] It does periodically break into an entirely different feel, from world beat to good ol' fashioned rock 'n' roll -- Andreas Rudenâ's violin seems able to make the transition to any mode, as does Jonatan Aisen's drumming, and Jonatan Ahlbom on helicon and the multifaceted Tobias Allvin (guitars, saw, and moog) are right there, too -- but the overwhelming sense is of "make merry while we may." And then you start listening to the lyrics [...] It's dark. It's really dark. "Cyanide," for example, presents us with a lively dance tune supporting some really bitter lyrics. [...] It's honky-tonk that bites.
There's a strong element of surreality in this collection, as well. "Kiss Me If You Can" makes three or four different kinds of sense, depending on your mood. The final cut, "Give Me You," is just that -- those are the lyrics, for three-and-a-half minutes, and it's marvelous. It becomes a touching and earnest love song -- except that I can't quite shake the feeling that Friis-Hansen is laughing at me.
I'm looking back at my attempts to describe this album -- that's what I do here, after all, try to translate music into words -- and they all somehow miss the mark. You have to listen to this one to get an idea of what it's about, and it's going to take more than one listening. Brace yourself.