TAGES - Studio
Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 04:00PM
soundscapes in Pop/Rock, Psych/Garage, Reissue

Long before ABBA released their string of Seventies smashes and more than thirty years before The Hives burst out of their garage, Sweden was boasting some of the best bands to hail outside the U.K. and the U.S. Singing mainly in English, beat/mod combos such as The Shanes, The Lee Kings and The Namelosers put out records almost on par with what the finest Anglo/American groups had to offer. At the top of the Swedish pop crop was Tages, whose singles and albums reflected the evolution of English rock from the early to late '60s (and, might I add, bloody brilliantly at that!).

Tages' fifth and final LP was Studio, released in late 1967 and now finally available for the non-Swedish world to savour in all its melodic glory, especially if you're already partial to albums like The Zombies' Odessey And Oracle or even Sgt. Pepper. But no matter how much Swingin' London pop rubbed off on Tages' style, they still weren't afraid to psych things up with traditional Swedish classical and folk influences, instead of simply strumming a sitar.

With bonus tracks consisting of their last few singles, socially-conscious lyrics about then-taboo topics like unwed motherhood and transvestism, charming flower-power idealism, and more hooks than a meat locker, Tages' Studio is something that's worth checkin' out—a hard-to-beat pop-sike treat and one of the most impressive reissues I've heard this year. 

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