Style: (neo) prog rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Flower Kings, Neal Morse Band, The Tangent, IQ, Focus
Country: Sweden
Release date: 8 December, 2023
In the illustrious world of progressive music that brings us all together here, a very particular strand of neo-progressive rock exists, so happy as to make my skin crawl. When I was younger—never quite happy-go-lucky but slightly less burdened by existence than I am now—I could tolerate some joy in my music, inhaling Neal Morse, The Flower Kings, and even Cheeto’s Magazine as if they could cure my mental health. Nowadays, the fondue of happy neo-prog makes me physically recoil; I developed lactose intolerance in my advanced age (of twenty years old). So why the hell did I pick up Moon Safari, a band in a close second to The Flower Kings for most disgustingly happy in Sweden? Well, I liked their album Blomljud a lot and still hold it in high regard compared to the rest of the genre. A mere decade after Vol. 1, Himlabacken Vol. 2 (from here on out just Himlabacken) plays in the same jubilant register, and I want to see where exactly my current tolerance is.
Himlabacken begins absolutely covered in a sticky sweetness like syrup, drenched in the most 80s sounding synths I’ve ever heard—heck, they must have stolen the sound directly from Van Halen’s “Jump.” Besides the outdated, albeit admittedly fun, synths, the intro track “198X (Heaven Hill)” continues with very tasteful vocal harmonies and pretty slick guitar tones. As much as I recoil from the major chords, I can’t truly roast Moon Safari because they’re damn good performers clearly having a jolly old time. The vocals in particular are excellent all across the album, several echelons above the prog singers of yore, and the vocal harmonies throughout scratch my brain in a pleasing way. The guitar and bass interact pleasantly on Himlabacken, too, with uplifting guitar solos aplenty and some necessary bass plodding underneath.
Despite my attempts to enjoy this album by virtue of the performances, the songwriting holds it back. Beyond the 80s sections jumping far into kitsch territory, tracks like “Between the Devil and Me” and “Forever, for You” meander without much to hold them together. The former goes on for over ten minutes without earning close to its length because of repetitive sections all over and a particularly dreary slow part, the track only picking up in the last thirty seconds or so with one of the heavier rock riffs on the album adding some much needed intensity to the sound—of course, thirty seconds can’t save a song on its own. The latter is simply bland, never breaking new ground, a mediocre reprisal of what came before on Himlabacken. Moreover, Himlabacken is so steeped in sappy, neo-prog cliches a là Neal Morse, it’s painful to a curmudgeon like me. The end of “A Lifetime to Learn How to Love” is a clear attempt at the grandiose, but it falls flat because of the predictable soaring guitar melodies. Even worse is that the track’s painfully slow pacing kills the album’s momentum completely. Himlabacken’s length is already quite unwieldy, easily eclipsing the hour mark (when Vol. 1 was a prim forty-six minutes), and with several tracks being either too slow, bloated, or completely inessential, trim the fat and make this a stronger forty-six minute album, too.
Surprisingly, one track is bloat-free, the epic “Teen Angel Meets the Apocalypse.” From the get go, the added orchestration of the strings is lovely, making the songwriting feel much more inspired, too, replete with fleshed out transitions, a clear arc, and those sweet strings. The production on Himlabacken stands out on this track as superb, crystal clear with every instrument sounding rich and well-mixed; hats off to Moon Safari for that. Saving all of your inspiration for the long track is certainly a prog trope, and Moon Safari really did whip out all their guns for this. The lyrics still painfully cheesy, this song is a true standout prog rock epic (now known as the Nospūn approach) except for fumbling the bag a bit near the ending with another cliched outro solo I could’ve written in my sleep for the style.
My tolerance for outrageously happy progressive rock is higher than anticipated, but I chalk it up to Moon Safari’s wonderful, warm production and tasteful vocal performances—their harmonies are what D’Virgilio, Morse & Jennings could only hope to be. Himlabacken suffers substantially in many of the ways anticipated with its meandering writing, cheesiness, and kitsch genre cliches, but it’s not a completely joyful trainwreck—maybe my little Grinch heart grew a size today, tis the season after all.
Recommended tracks: 198X (Heaven Hill), Teen Angel Meets the Apocalypse, Epilog
You may also like: Echolyn; Kaipa; Transatlantic; Cheeto’s Magazine; D’Virgilio, Morse & Jennings; Ice Age; Southern Empire; Dry River
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
Label: Blomljud Records
Moon Safari is:
Petter Sandström – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
Simon Åkesson – lead vocals, lead keyboards
Johan Westerlund – bass, backing vocals
Pontus Åkesson – guitars, backing vocals
Sebastian Åkesson – keyboards, guitars, backing vocals
Mikael Israelsson – drums, percussion, backing vocals
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