Kent - Kent (1995)

1) Blåjeans; 2) Som vatten; 3) Ingenting någonsin; 4) När det blåser på månen; 5) Jag vill inte vara rädd; 6) Vad två öron klarar; 7) Den osynlige mannen; 8) Pojken med hålet i händen; 9) Ingen kommer att tro dig; 10) Stenbrott; 11) Frank

Cookie-cutter inexperienced rock band debut album from the 90s. Flaws and charms in its guitar wall melancholy.

Key tracks: "Blåjeans", "När det blåser på månen", "Stenbrott"

Kent were quite inarguably one of the biggest success stories the Nordic region has had. Dubbed “Sweden’s biggest rock band”, they’ve been paving their own way to great effect and achieved largely anything a band of their kind could hope for: international hits, constant critical acclaim, no particular flops worth a mention, managing to turn a b-side into a pseudo-hit, going through a full sound reinvention and pulling it off perfectly, and finally settling down by steadily releasing consistently good albums after the radio hits died down - all done with the sort of complete creative independence a lot of bands of their stature have had to fight for. It’s good to mention their future for the sake of context and getting the grasp of just how far they’ve come, because on their debut we’re dealing with none of the above. In 1995 Kent were a group of young guys escaping the mundanity of their small town life by playing music and who had barely just settled on a line-up and a name when they were signed up.

Based on just that, you can kind of guess where this is going. Kent is spirited, impassioned, and so indebted to the moody, post-grunge British rock scene of the 90s that you’d only need to switch the sung tongue and it’d be right at home. Kent make their entrance with the way and the sound that hundreds of young bands just like them started their journey with during the time period - moody, dour and propelled by quiet/loud dynamics, with echoes of Manic Street Preachers, early Radiohead (The Bends was released almost exactly on the same day as Kent, fun fact) and other contemporaries. The band members were in their mid-twenties when the album was released but it’s a hotbed of all the teenage anxiety they had been bottling for years, and Joakim Berg’s inexperienced voice barely holds itself together. There’s not a lick of originality present, but there is plenty of passion and Berg’s charisma is already starting to bubble through. At times, it’s the only thing really carrying the songs.

Like a lot of the albums of this kind, Kent as well is little more than just a launchpad. I mentioned before that Kent haven’t had any real failures in their lifetime and I stand by that, but it’s really obvious the band were still completely green at this stage despite years of active grassroots activity. They play well enough but the songs themselves lack depth, coming off as decent enough to listen to but rather nondescript when it comes down to leaving an impression. The best cuts - “Blåjeans”, “När det blåser på månen”, “Stenbrott” - wouldn’t be the highlights they are if they were on any other album and even their memorability is partially based on silly little details; “Blåjeans” sticks in your head because of its placement as the first ever Kent track sequentially, “När det blåser på månen” has a hilariously melodramatic lift-off countdown by its end and the abrupt guitar lick in the chorus of “Stenbrott” is a thoroughly daft but efficiently memorable hook. This isn’t meant to be a backhanded compliment or a dig at the other songs because the album does get the bare minimum of foot-tapping, head-nodding approval rating at the very least, but the album’s overall generic nature is undeniable and the songs aren’t so great it’d be easy to ignore.

That said, the best thing that the album has going for it is in fact that typical 90s sound - it’s definitely a heavy load completely subjective and unashamedly personal associations talking, but the little touch of nostalgic warmth that the dry 90s rock sound brings is probably just as, if not even more crucial to the overall enjoyment it brings than the actual songs are. But as far as any real merit or general importance goes, Kent doesn’t have much of it. Its main talking point is that it’s Kent’s debut album and in all likelihood, without that connection it would probably be lost in time completely, filed along with countless others of its kind. There’s no hidden deep cuts or a random hit song equivalent to the “Creep” scenario to keep it in general consciousness - it’s just five guys with guitars and drums and a will to make something more out of life. That gets them somewhere, at least, but Kent’s debut is quite obviously the weakest thing they’ve done.

Rating: 5/10