There’s quite a lot to unpack here, especially after a marathon session I just spent on the first album review for ages.
Fleeting Temples is the solo project of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Rickard Sjöberg who was once keyboardist with the ‘indie sextet’, Lacrosse. He identifies himself now as ‘Solo artist, collaborator, and maker of concept albums’. I don’t know if he is also a Swedish TV celebrity who goes by that name, but I’ll mention it just in case he’s moonlighting.
A new single, ‘Only’, came out last Friday (August 15th) and a new album follows on the 29th, called ‘Beast’, which sounds a little ominous.
It gets better. It turns out that ‘Beast’, which comes out of “a cocktail of influences” from the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Sufjan Stevens, Sonic Youth and many others is the final chapter in a trilogy that began with ‘The Invisible Man’ (2022) and then continued with ‘Zenith / No Shadow’ (2023), which collectively explored themes such as toxic masculinity, depression and the end of the world. Sounds like a barrel of laughs.
He says that on ‘Beast’, however, the tone is more hopeful. It could hardly be any less so.
The short (30 minutes) album is a letter of resignation, a plea for love, an offer of consolation and an invitation to defy your demons.
Ok, I’m bought. He clearly puts a lot of thought and effort into his work and that is evident immediately on ‘Only’, which kicks off with what sounds like the theme to Glen Campbell’s immortal ‘Wichita Lineman’.
And that’s a great start. Do you know that Bob Dylan once proclaimed that to be the greatest song ever written?
Shoegaze (which is as close as I can get to a style here, albeit in an undramatic fashion) is one you’re attracted to or not but it serves as a useful vehicle for what seems to be a story of youth failing to come to terms with the ever shifting demands of the post Covid world but never losing faith that salvation is only just around the corner and the good times will come again one day.
A smartly put together song that will grow more on you with each successive listening. Fleeting Temples by the way is a concept from a poem by Danusha Laméris; ‘Small Kindnesses’, and they refer to the brief, sacred moments created when people show passing kindness to one another.
What I don’t know is whether that is how Rickard got the name but there some suggestions in the lyrics that it might be.
‘Beast’ is out on Anagrammofon Records on August 29th.
The musicians and supporters:
Rickard Sjöberg – vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, melodica, tambourine
Tobias Dahlström – drums
Adam Vesterbacka – mastering
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fleetingtemples/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleetingtemples/
Bandcamp (track to purchase): https://fleetingtemples.bandcamp.com/track/only-3
