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Although relatively unknown outside of Sweden or perhaps Europe, Kent since its early inception as an indie-rock band has been a hugely successful and popular band, especially in Sweden. I discovered Kent last year through Pandora, when the song “Sundance Kid†came up as one of the songs in my Coldplay radio station.
The first time I heard Sundance Kid, I was floored. It was just I had been waiting to hear on my play-list. I am a firm believer that music knows no language – hence the fact it was a Swedish song or a Swedish band didn’t matter. I was hooked to the song, the tune, the guitars, and the electric techno-rock. Mentally I had made up my mind to dig up more on Kent later.
Over the year and much listening, I have to say this: Kent is to Sweden as U2 is to Ireland or Coldplay to England. The fact that I am clubbing them with U2 and Coldplay doesn’t mean they are as good as both of them (nor is Coldplay as good as U2), but they come pretty close.
Both Coldplay and U2 however have one big advantage over Kent in that their language of choice has been English, a huge factor when coming to universal acceptance. Kent tried twice to re-record their albums in English for English audience; unfortunately the effort showed that they are clearly not comfortable in the English language. It is not much of a surprise then that the only reviews and 5-star ratings you read on Amazon for their albums stem out of English speaking population who heard of Kent either through their Swedish friends or in most cases listened to them in Sweden itself.
Mentioning about the band’s history and acting a smart ass is pretty much useless, as much of band’s progress, history, singles, #1s have all been covered in great detail on Wikipedia , and if you did be interested, you should definitely check it out about the band’s progress. What I do want to say here is why I like their music and why it has appealed to me more than any of recent European rock bands.
The first reason I like them, is well, they are a European rock band. That European rock rocks is a given; Almost all American rock bands sound like one another in recent times (Save for Red Hot Chilli Peppers), and frankly it’s a puzzle to figure out if a certain song was sung by Audioslave, Nickleback, Snow Patrol or Creed – they sound just the same! Contrast this to Europe – U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis – need I even say anything about any of them? And may I add another to that list – Kent.
The second reason I loved Kent is their style of music is follows a very techno-rock style, which I have come to be addicted to. Heavy beats with rock-ass guitars form a base for most (make that almost all) songs – clearly Kent knows their strength, and plays according to them. One can argue that they may not bring the variety to table as other European bands, but I am not complaining – because what they do, they do exceedingly well.
Another reason I highly recommend Kent is the lead vocals by Joakim Berg; I was highly impressed that their songs didn’t really need him to use false-highs to sing in high pitch (something which Chris Martin, does, and does very well). His English renditions don’t sound as appealing as Swedish (though I don’t understand a word), but one cant complain about his vocals in his native language. Like Bono, Berg would be another candidate I could listen to on and on.
Most of their music would be seem like a toned down version of Rammtien, but that is what sets apart Kent. While still using similar style, Kent could as easily be inspired by Coldplay (to some extent – though both bands came out together around the same time – so its not possible to say who inspired whom), U2 and most notably Radiohead. Interstingly, although its rock music at its core, most of Kent’s music can as easily be disguised as perfect dance tracks.
At this point you may wonder that I have gone on and on about Kent, without mentioning an album or single yet.
Kent has consistently dished out one good album after another, and I find it actually difficult to pinpoint any one album as a brilliant – they are all up with one another, but my personal favorite has to be Vapen & Ammunition. On the heels would be what many consider their back to back masterpieces – Isola and Hagnesta Hill (both of which were released in English versions which went unnoticed). They released their 5th album last year titled Du & Jag Doden, which again continues in the same vein, and contains a lot many hits. They also released a b-sides album, which frankly speaking contains so many good songs that many fans wonder if it actually deserved to be a b-side album.
While almost all their songs are good to great to brilliant, and I have hardly come across any band song by them, here’s a quick list of my favorite songs from Kent, which has dominated my music player for a while now.
Song (Album)
FF (Vapen & Ammunition)
Socker (Vapen & Ammunition)
Karleken Vant Ar (Vapen & Ammunition)
Dom Andra ( Vapen & Ammunition)
Parlor (Vapen & Ammunition)
Sundance Kid (Vapen & Ammunition)
Jag Vill Inte Vara Rddd (Kent)
Heavenly Junkies (Hagnesta Hill)
Music Non Stop (Hagnesta Hill)
The King is dead (Hagnesta Hill)
Mannen I Den Vita Hatten (Du & Jag Doden)
Romeo Atervander Ensam (Du & Jag Doden)
Max 500 (Du & Jag Doden)
Palace & Main (Du & Jag Doden)
Du Var Min Arme (Du & Jag Doden)
Den Doda Vinkeln (Du & Jag Doden)
400 Slag (Du & Jag Doden)
Do give Kent a try. You won’t be disappointed!