Classic Rock Bottom

For this week's anniversary pick, I'm going with 1994's "Freewheelin" from Sweden's own Electric Boys.

Unlike their debut, "Funk-O-Metal Carpet Ride", and the underrated followup, "Groovus Maximus", there's less funk funk and more metal here. Not to worry, there's still a bit o' funk here and there. Still, it definitely sounds like an Electric Boys album, which is a good thing. 

Since it was 1994, this flew under the radar and was quite hard to find, at least in the states. It wasn't until 2004 that it was available for a reasonable price (as well as the first two albums) and remastered as well.

And now it's OOP again. 

If you like hard, bluesy rock with a hint of funk, you might like this. If you don't, then you probably won't like this. 

One thing that is missing on the remaster is the bonus track of "Black Betty" that could be found on some of the original releases. Why? I don't know. Luckily for us someone was nice enough to post it on youtube:

Considering I haven't put much thought into this, I will end this with the band bio courtesy of allmusic since it will make this post look longer:

"Sweden's Electric Boys were one of the first and most celebrated purveyors of the short-lived funk metal phenomenon of the late '80s and early '90s. Led by charismatic singer and guitarist Conny Bloom, the quartet garnered rave reviews and built quite a following in Europe, but never managed to bridge the Atlantic and convert American audiences. Their creative juices were also quickly spent, causing the band to disintegrate into obscurity after only three albums.

In 1988, Conny Bloom formed Electric Boys with bassist Andy Christell in Stockholm. After scoring a significant domestic hit with their first single, "All Lips N' Hips," the group completed their lineup with guitarist Franco Santunione and drummer Niclas Sivegall and set to work on their first album, 1989's critically acclaimed Funk-O-Metal Carpet Ride. Signed to Atco by former Kerrang! scribe turned A&R man Derek Oliver, the band took Europe and the U.K. by storm with their extremely funky retro-hard rock sound and gaudy psychedelic look. Producer du jour Bob Rock was brought in to remix the album and record some new tracks prior to release stateside. But while the video for "All Lips N' Hips" was actually placed in daytime rotation by MTV, sales never really took off.

1992's disappointing Groovus Maximus failed to meet fan and critical expectations, and though amicable, the departure of Santunione and Sivegall proved another blow. Guitarist Martin Thomander and drummer Thomas Broman were brought in to replace them prior to the band's next tour, which included a few European festival appearances supporting Metallica. But Electric Boys had lost serious momentum, and were eventually dropped by Atco. Released by independent Music for Nations in 1994, their third effort, Freewheelin', played it safe with pretty straightforward hard rock, but this only seemed to accelerate their descent. Following the cancellation of a planned U.K. tour in support of King's X, the band decided to call it quits and played a final gig in their hometown of Stockholm. Conny Bloom would remain active as a sometime solo artist and eventually joined former Wildhearts main man Ginger in the short-lived Silver Ginger 5."

Freewheelin'

1. Ready To Believe
2. Straight No Chaser
3. Groover
4. Mountains And Sunsets
5. Sad Day
6. Nothing For Nothing
7. Sleeping In The Worlds Smallest Bed
8. My Knuckles Your Face
9. Not My Cross To Bear
10. Sharpshooter

Availability: The remastered version includes six bonus tracks but is OOP. If you save your $$, you could get one for around $230. There's also another listed for around $42, unsure if that is the remastered version or the original one.  

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Excellent choice, Jon! At least for me. I've got 2 discs by these guys, and dig 'em both. And I've never heard their other stuff. So great to check this out, and so far, it's some fine hard rock. Like you say, not as funky, but still very good and heavy.

I wonder if my boss will be pissed if I blow these little computer speakers out...

Like what I'm hearing so far - I'm only a few tracks in - Gettin' a little Glenn Hughes/California Breed vibe with some RATT like riffage mixed in.  You may be onto something here Jon!

This kind of fell down with The Groover, what started off quite interesting really fell flat.  But its a one track slip, Mountains and Sunsets picks it up a bit ...

Like the production as well, this band sound really quite tight.  Love the keyboard/geetar interplay in Sad Day hope to hear more of that in the remaining tracks.  Sad Day is the best tune so far - easily!  And they follow the best track with a clunker!  Two filler tracks so far...  Make that 3  - Sleeping In The Worlds Smallest Bed?  Weird!

My Knuckles Your Face - better, but only by a little.  Now this tune Not My Cross To Bear, cool with a hint of wocka-wocka geetar?  Not the best chorus on here but love the music, a well written tune!

Sharpshooter is the closer - such a stroke of genius for me to come up with that playlist! - anyway...  Nice tunes on here really like the vibe of this band!  Would like to hear more...

Nice work Jon!!!

Here we go:

Ready To Believe - Nice start.  Geeeetar...check.  Swagger...check.  Riff...check.  Lyrics...no check.

Straight No Chaser - It's okay, but the biggest problem here is lack of a vocal melody.  I do like the time change.

Groover - Love the start of this one.  It's very groovy, even funky in spots, but still no vocal melody at all.

Mountains And Sunsets - This is the first completely uninteresting track.

Sad Day - A fair ballad.  Nice keys. Bluesy guitar work.

Nothing For Nothing, Sleeping In The World's Smallest Bed, My Knuckles Your Face, Not My Cross To Bear and Sharpshooter are all underwhelming.

So overall, this is fair.  It has very good riffage and guitar playing, but vocally, the dude has no sign of ability to sing a melody whatsoever.  Best description I can think of is that he sounds like a monotone version of Stephen Pearcy.

Listening to this for the 4th time now, and I like it. All of it. I've heard 3 of this bands albums now, and they are all good. Should have been a bigger band, in my opinion.

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