Robert Pehrsson’s Humbucker – Out Of The Dark
Album Review By Rainer Kerber
Robert Pehrsson? Who’s that, I asked myself when I discovered the promo in my mailbox. So quickly looked into the press release and researched on the Internet. The Swedish guitarist, singer and songwriter was born in December 1975. He has played with a variety of bands whose names tell me very little (including Runemagick, Thunder Express, Dundertåget). Only Imperial State Electric I could experience live a few years ago. After all, are enumerated on Wikipedia nineteen albums in which he has participated, a stately number. The guitarist is supported on the new longplayer by a band which, in addition to the co-authors Joseph Tholl (former Enforcer, VOJD), Tobias Egge (Imperial State Electric) and Andreas Axelsson (Edge Of Sanity, Tormented), also from Nicke Andersson (The Hellacopters, Imperial State Electric), Robert Eriksson (The Hellacopters), Jakob Ljungberg (ex-Tribulation, Second Sun), Tomas Eriksson (Imperial State Electric), Johan Bakman (Heavydeath, Necrocurse) and Oscar Ulfheden (Lafayette Music Company) consists. In the press release you can read that seven of the ten songs are from his pen. The disc was recorded and produced in his own studio, which has the neat name “Studio Humbucker”. Of course that makes me curious.
In Hard Rock / AOR mainstream the songs of Humbucker are settled. Whether “All I Need is Not To Need You” or “Careless Lover”, the sound comes out of the speakers light-hearted and lively. Robert Pehrsson excels above all as a singer and guitarist. Thanks to the many colleagues, all instruments were recorded “correctly”, (almost) nothing was sampled by the computer. There are quiet sounds at “Entombed In Time”, with acoustic guitars and strings, before the master starts to rock again. Also, all other songs, such as “These Words” or “Aphelion” are deeply rooted in the arena rock of the 70 / 80s. Slightly more speed is then hit on “Awaiting the Return of the Light”. With “Castle Turns to Dust” the guitars crack like in the classic Hard Rock. Of course, the ELO cover “Surrender” also fits to the overall work.
“Out Of The Dark” is retro, You bet. It seems that time has stopped for Robert Pehrsson. Twenty / thirty years ago he would have been able to fill big stadiums with it. In the here and now this is a nice memory for the music of my youth. Not more but also not less. The sound is fresh, and the musicians come over very authentically. Good mood Rock pure.
Robert Pehrsson’s Humbucker – All I Need Is Not to Need You: https://youtu.be/q2mHbDl5nSk
Label: High Roller Records
Out: September 13th, 2019
Playing time: 32:57
Track list:
- All I Need Is Not To Need You
- Careless Lover
- Entombed iIn Time
- These Words
- Aphelion
- Awaiting the Return of the Light
- Castle Turns to Dust
- Surrender
- Pick Me Up
- Everybody’s Here
Rating : 8/10
MHF Magazine/Rainer Kerber
