2007 AUGUST 29 #241
Mia Marianne and Per Filip - Where The Roses Never Fade
MP3:
01 Where The Roses Never Fade (3:29)
02 Come and Follow Me (2:55)
03 Amazing Grace (3:56)
04 Change The Bombs For Bread (2:38)
05 Morning Song (2:43)
06 This Little Light of Mine (2:34)
07 Let Your Love be Alive (2:34)
08 Bengawan Solo (2:55)
09 Brighten The Corner (2:32)
10 Londonderry Air (3:36)
11 If I Had A Hammer (2:13)
12 Dakota Hymn (3:02)
I dunno if this really qualifies for the 365 days thing but it has many of the attributes necessary to do so. Bad cover. Naff music. Obscurity...
Ah! Mia Marianne and Per Filip may be too well known to be real contenders... Not that I have ever heard of them but the sleeve notes state that they had a platinum album in Sweden... Hmmmm... I have to say that's still obscure in my book ;-) ( Google doesn't show up much either )
I bought this record on the strength of the cover. As you do. (That and the 99p price tag, I ain't gonna spend even vaguely big on naff records I'm afraid. My kids were mystified enough as it is.) The cover looked seriously promising, and once I got back from holiday and actually played it, it delivered.
So, what do we have here? A collection of clean and jolly songs with a Christian message, sung by a clean and jolly Swedish couple, in English. In fact, an English language version of a Swedish album that did quite well in its Swedish incarnation, though they say it themselves. In other words, what we got here is Nordic Niceness To The Max in English.
What's it like to listen to? Nice. Nicely Nice. Nicely, Nicely, Nice, Nice, Nice. So Nice it made my teeth itch, but in a Nice way... Did I mention it was Nice? Mia Marianne and Per Filip are so hardcore Nice they make Peter, Paul and Mary sound like The Nine Inch Nails. Their music is the aural equivalent of Crimplene. Music for those days when the Seekers are just too radical!
However, the sleeve notes are enjoyable. i.e.
""Mia Marianne has a dark, warm and well-timbered soprano voice with an unusual vocal extent."
Did she inhale a lot of sawdust at an early age or something? Maybe all those log cabins had something to do with it. I wonder what a half-timbered voice would sound like.
""Despite the volume of their voices, they yet sing simple songs with the right feeling and it is through their natural, beautiful way of singing and acting that they have got their great popularity."
Indeed. If it's too loud, you're too old. Enjoy.
- Contributed by: Jon Allen
Images: Front, Back
Produced by Mia Marianne and Per Filip
Sleeve Design by Mia Marianne and Per Filip
Published 1985
Hans Edler Ltd. London
15021 Molnbo Sweden
