Not really my idea of a Fantasy.
Swedish AOR band Fantasy first became active in 1987. A solitary single was released in 1989 before the band dissolved the following year. Twenty-five years later, founding member Tomas Bergsten releases this, his first full-length album, which consists mostly of Fantasy's songs that were written back in the eighties. Bergsten handles vocals and guitar, his brother Tobias drums and keyboards and former House Of Shakira/Royal Hunt bassist Per Schelander plays on the majority of the tracks.
The album begins well enough with the Deep Purple sounding 'Caught In The Dark' with its big organ sound and guitar solo from Overdrive's Janne Stark, and 'Yesterday Is Gone' shows some promise, but while the rest of the album isn't exactly what I would call bad, even after repeated plays I'm still left distinctly underwhelmed by the majority of it and struggling to find anything to tempt me to return to it in the future.
I can't quite put my finger exactly on what the issue is, but I feel it's a bit lifeless and somewhat lacking conviction in the overall execution – it merely taps you on the shoulder and says "pardon me sir" rather than grab you by the balls. It's not helped by the fact that Tomas Bergsten's voice isn't great - the drab ballad 'Waiting For Love' and enhanced vocal effects and off-kilter harmonies on 'Better Days' only serve to highlight this fact. Even the appearance of ex Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick on 'Words From A Fortune Teller' can't lift the album above mediocre.
More of Bergsten's songs are in the pipeline for release soon, but something has to change in the delivery if the next album is to avoid suffering the same fate. Not really my idea of a Fantasy.
Ant Heeks
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