| Honest But Modest EP | 2002 |
| Tramps Like Us EP | 2003 |
| Transparent Melodies | 2003 |
Daniel Fjall is a Swede who really likes Bruce Springsteen and American music overall, so he writes songs just like all these guys. And he writes them really well. He also has a really special kind of voice, which sounds like a baby of Bob Dylan's weak hoarse and Courtney Love's smoked-up fucked-up whine. It's definitely not for everyone, and you either hate his voice or love it. He had released two demo EPs and only one long-play so far, and they all are quite good, so go to http://www.geocities.com/daniels_demo_site and get them. Oh - and Daniel is a really friendly guy and a great reviewer too. That's it.
--Oleg Sobolev
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(reviewed by Oleg Sobolev)
HIGH POINTS: The Drapes, Like Me. LOW POINTS: Runaway.
Oh, yay, his first demo EP! Actually, it's extremely short for a real demo or even an EP in the modern CD era, so that's no surprise the record companies rejected this one, without even bothering to listen to these songs. Ah, whatever. If they would listen to, for instance, the closing "The Drapes", they could find an easy potential hit, the best Coldplay song that Coldplay never wrote, and, to top that, a great song in its' own right. "The Drapes" is just a pop masterpiece, containing a soft, repetitive rhythm all over and instantly memorable vocal melody with some tasteful guitar work. I love it. I also like "Like Me", a strange ballad that sounds like a cross between some guy's broken piano and Roger Waters really high on LSD. Unfortunately, the third song on here, "Runaway" (uh, well, there's also "Take Me Down", but forget that one), is as good as going out with your girlfriend on a sunny afternoon being stinky and smelly, occasionally shitting your pants in the middle of the overcrowded street and singing Ween 's "You Fucked Up" via megaphone. Wow, I managed to describe an entire record in one single paragraph. I'm growing up with every single day. It's too sad that people don't understand the true genius of mine. A bunch of bastards.
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(reviewed by Oleg Sobolev)
HIGH POINTS: All We Got, Blues #73, Most Of All. LOW POINTS: None.
This one is my favourite of Daniel's, that's just because all of these songs are very enjoyable. Every single song on here boasts wise production, careful arrangement and the load of hooks. For example of a great work of\Daniel (and his mate Claes Nilsson), take something like "Most Of All", which is a gorgeous song, relying mostly on a soft atmosphere and it actually manages to success. "Soft And Clear" is also a really good song, upbeat and infectious, fun and catchy. "Blues #73" (which doesn't sound really like blues to me) seems to be a song that went out of jamming, but it was a classy jam anyway, and the guitar work on here is awesome, complete with addition of some nice organs. "Say Goodbye" is a wisely chosen album closer, a beautiful ballad with a dreamy combination of organs and guitars. However, the best song on here is opening "All We Got", another beautiful winner song, a perfect number to suit Bruce Springsteen or Dire Straits and a catchy song to top it. Overall, Tramps Like Us is simply the best material Daniel had put on a tape. Get it.
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(reviewed by Oleg Sobolev)
HIGH POINTS: The Drapes, All Too Late, Ride The Train, What You Would Want. LOW POINTS: You Don't Love Me, From An Open Sky.
Transparent Melodies, Daniel Fjall's first LP (still demo, but, whatever, fuck that) sounds absolutely like his previous records, not that's actually a drawback. His songwriting abilities are still solid, the production is still fantastic for an unsigned act and instrumental abilities of Claes Nilsson are good as always, but, then, there's one problem with this record I have - it all sounds the same. At over 35 or something like that minutes, Daniel hardly rocks anywhere. Yeah, the first track, "All Too Late", is a major exception, being a rocker, but all other songs are ballads. I dunno if Daniel writes songs that only fit his voice (which I don't really like, to be honest) or the Swedes have too much melancholia in their blood, but the ballads dominate the sound. Even when Daniel actually wants to rock out, he fails, and it all results in such a lousy faux-funk thing as "You Don't Love Me", arguably his worst song. As much as he is talented, Daniel really needs to make his sound a little bit more diverse by the time of his next release.
However, only one of these ballads really bothers me - "From An Open Sky". The tune was nothing interesting to begin with, being completely unmemorable and cheesy, moreover Daniel sings it in the worst way possible, especially in the chorus, and that "She brings me water from an open sky" line sounds completely awful. It is, without a doubt, his worst vocal performance. Also, "And This Rain" is a nice tune, but that's all I can say about it, because it's quite forgettable. But other songs? Well, they are all range from good to even great. The mentioned "All Too Late" is, as I said, a rocker, and a really superb one, energetic and catchy, and Daniel actually sings in falsetto in chorus, and does it so well that it makes me regret I've just trashed his voice some lines above. The following song - "Would It Be So Bad" - builds on a tender acoustic guitar chord progression and ends up being a really effective song.
"Don't Remember" shouldn't have worked at all, because that never-ending "don't remember" refrain annoys the shit out of me, but how can you trash the song with a beautiful piano/guitar riff and careful electric guitar work, which washes all over the sound and culminates in a number of really good solos. "What You Would Want" steps from an ordinary Daniel Fjall sound - it is a full 5:30 epic, based completely on warm organ sound (which quite reminds me of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot). The vocal melody is great too, the background vocals fit nicely and, finally, some lazy trumpet solos sound really good too. "Ride The Train", meanwhile, sets the first part only on combination of Daniel's voice and piano, but the real thing comes in a majestic instrumental break which builds up with some synthezisered strings, horns and a full harmonica solo. And then comes the familiar "The Drapes", which ends the album, and that's just really right, because: a) the song's an ideal closer; b) it's the best Daniel's song. It just belongs here, man.
Well, although it's short and Daniel doesn't seem to care much about diversity of his sound (though he brought some new instruments in the sound, as you may notice), Transparent Melodies is still quite a good debut for a young singer-songwriter.
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