Is there a phase
, later in life, when you start to feel more like a spectator than a participant?
In that case, it is the one that Telegram is about.
In a rather wonderful song, Ulf Lundell sings about driving around Österlen in his old BMW and playing his favorite songs from the last century.
And was there anyone who hoped for a new Oh la la I want you, it will be very disappointed:
"Women meant a lot, Now almost nothing, It's nice to not have to feel the sting of love, The curves of this time, I do not care so much about them either, I came here in a plane with a completely different kind of propeller"
It may seem sad.
But the song is beautiful, hovering and Ulf Lundell sounds happy.
And that's more than can be said about the rest of the album.
For Telegram, it is above all about being really lonely and really depressed.
Not in a coquettish way but seriously, hopelessly under-the-ice-depressed.
And it's about being left behind and about death - or the "deep black lake" as Lundell calls it.
Musically, the basic tone is dark.
On Fram between the stones, he sounds like an older and more pompous Thåström - in a good way.
Otherwise, it's slow, cinematic, a bit americana-influenced.
He sings in that typical Ulf Lundell song: talkative, horse.
Sometimes a little manic, but usually on the right side of the border.
All of us who have a
depressed sour old man inside, one who thirsts for water in his mill, will feel heard and seen by Ulf Lundell when he sings over a soft, dull bass "You say as it is, But no one hears it".
Yes, preciiiiiiis so it is.
But it is not really that simple either.
In The Sun and the Wind, a paraphrase of the bloated 80s mega-hit I thrive best in open landscapes, Ulf Lundell, almost forty years older, answers his younger self.
And the older one is not so sure.
For freedom has its price and that price is loneliness.
And that - it's terribly expensive:
“Imagine before
you decide that it is close to the sea you want to live, It's a bit windy, The house is shaking, the paint is peeling from the facade, the snow cannons are tearing like claws, The darkness is black like a choke glove around the throat, The soul can have a hard time get peace ”
Telegram is a good album.
Grippingly beautiful and honest in its moments.
But purely musically, there is not much that surprises or upsets.
It would not have hurt if he had dared to challenge at least something.
Nowadays, Ulf Lundell is stronger as a writer than as an artist.
For the great treasure, the lyrics are.
Smart, raw, literary and often funny about that annoying, shitty everyday life, life, the world, which may never have been grayer than now.