By Cormac Stephen Synnott, Year 12
Released in 1991, Perssons Pack’s album Äkta Hjärtan was a quasi-immediate success. Soon becoming the group’s biggest album, featuring hit Tusen Dagar Härifrån, a collaboration with fellow pop-rock star Jakob Hellman. Despite these successes, one can always question an album’s longevity. “Is it still good?”: a reasonable question to ask of Äkta Hjärtan, especially considering that an album mixing folk, pop, and rock, seems almost bound for disaster.
The context to understanding Äkta Hjärtan is crucial. The band behind its release, Perssons Pack, was formed by frontman and namesake Per Persson after he and the Traste Lindéns Kvintett parted ways in 1989. That same year, their first album, Kärlek och Dynamit, released to some success, although was mostly unknown outside of the band’s home country of Sweden. The following year, they would release Kanoner och små, små Saker, an album that would be slightly less successful than the previous Kärlek och Dynamit. In 1991, however, the band would release the massive Äkta Hjärtan, which would go on to become the band’s most popular album. Despite some success in 1992 with Svenska Hjärtan : svarta ballader och fördömda sånger, an album of covers, the band could never replicate the success of Äkta Hjärtan. Perssons Pack would stop regularly releasing music after 1995, although would continue to do so irregularly. The band officially disbanded in 2014.
Stylistically, Äkta Hjärtan is an album defined by its fusion of genres. The aforementioned Traste Lindéns Kvintett remained steady in their folk categorisation; at most, one could classify them as folk-rock. Upon his departure from the Kvintett, Persson initially remained fairly true to his folk roots. Hanna, a track of Perssons Pack’s 1989 Kärlek och Dynamit, is, despite its clear rock influence, rooted to folk. This, however, would change with Äkta Hjärtan. For example, the song Äkta Hjärtan, despite the band’s use of folk instruments, does not feel like a straightforward folk song. In fact, the song’s structure is more reminiscent of a pop-rock song. This is not to say that Per Persson and Perssons Pack turned their backs on folk; in my opinion, most of Äkta Hjärtan’s charm comes from the fusion of old and new. Ett Paradis Längre Ner is a pop-rock song defined by its accordion, and En Morgon Mellan Bergen, one of my favourite songs of all time, is an immensely moving ballad with a brilliantly used harmonica. Äkta Hjärtan can be enjoyed as rock, yes, but that goes hand in hand with its folk elements, elements that are beautifully woven into the album’s songs. With all of this in mind, I find it fair to say that Äkta Hjärtan has aged well stylistically.
The final criterion I find it important to assess an album is that of its content, or lyrics. Perssons Pack’s lyrics are a mixed bag. While I think songs like En Morgon Mellan Bergen are very well-written, the album also contains its share of weaker lyrics, such as in Nyårsafton i New York. That being said, whether the songs are lyrically brilliant (for the most part, not really), is a different question to whether or not the songs are engaging. I mentioned En Morgon Mellan Bergen as an example twice before, both for good music and for good lyrics. Whilst both of those factors may be true, it is the combination of Persson’s singing and the backing music that come together to make the song as emotionally impactful as it is. The same goes for Nyårsafton i New York*; featuring a rapped segment one can only describe as odd, the song’s lyrics are certainly not its strong point, yet the aggressive folk-rock combined with Perssons shouting of the lyrics still make it an incredibly catchy song.
With all of that being said, it feels safe to conclude that Äkta Hjärtan has aged very well. The album is still enjoyable and interesting musically, and is still as fascinating and touching as it would have back in 1991. Perssons Pack’s blend of pop, rock, and folk survives to this day as an example of how to fuse genres successfully, and the album remains as strong now as it was upon release.
*This track is bizarre, it features a sort of strange, rapped segment delivered by a man referred to as Magnum Coltrane Price. He is seemingly a bassist involved with something called Devious Recordings. Prior to writing this article, I had always wondered who this “Coltrane Price” was, and after roughly half an hour of research I can confirm that it is no clearer. He raps in English on Nyårsafton i New York, making it the only non-Swedish segment on the album. Upon googling him, all my results led me to a man called Nils Landgren. I didn’t know why this was until I realized that seemingly the only text available regarding Coltrane Price is on Landgren’s website. It reads as follows, “His name is closely associated with infectious and groovesome blends of jazzy-funk, but now with his own label and publishing company seeing the light of day, Price is pursuing a path which is centered around releasing his own music.” It goes on to link to another article, however that article seems not to exist.
