from Monica Törnell - Alrik (1973)

The opener, "Öje brudmarsch", while supposedly a wedding march, sounds much more like what you might expect to come out of that cover: a viking call to arms hollered by a swedish counterpart to those tribal badass grrrls in war painting that were the only iconically noteworthy thing to come out of those proudly big and dumb post-Descent films by Neil Marshall; so these must have been some nuptials to behold. 

Unfortunately, in this record, it's like that character got ditched right away, so I'm left to sit through the rest of it deprived of the one thing I could get invested in. She still gets a couple of flashbacks going forward (like "Inte äger jag gods och guld (Dalpolska upptecknad på Nicolai polisstation)" or "Suplåt"), even if they don't quite feel like full sequences, and otherwise Törnell goes on impersonating a string of musical types available for a female interpreter of the 70's to show some range (blues singer, pop-rock star, night-club performer, folk high-priestess) - which makes it not so surprising that she would also, further down the line, become a Eurovision contestant; a move that pretty much symbolized the demise of the whole progg (for "progressiv musik") movement and its wide anti-establishment stance, which apparently had even successfully called into question Sweden's participation in the competition back in 1976 (those were the days). 
As such, even if her consistent 'what you lookin' at?' sort of delivery gives the album a measure of cohesion, my most lasting impression is still that of it being a bit of a tonal mess. Now, if there were a sequel or a prequel to this entirely devoted to letting Törnell's freak flag fly, that would certainly be worth tracking down, and one viking call I would heed. Just let me dust off my horned helmet, and we're good to go.