Aural Fixations

MATTIAS HELLBERG
Mattias Hellberg
(Silence)
Sweden's Mattias Hellberg has been knocking around the edges of the Nordic music business for several years now, as a member of Diamond Dogs and the Wayne Kramer-endorsed Nymphet Noodlers, before finding a measure of success in the covers duo Hederos & Hellberg. Now he's finally stepping out on his own with his self-titled debut album, and it's a knockout. Hellberg's works boasts a strong traditional streak, with straightforward, verse-chorus-verse songs that draw from rock & roll, C&W and folk sources. Couched in deliberately ragged arrangements revolving around an acoustic/electric guitar mix evocative of the Rolling Stones at their best, tunes like "A Sight Supreme," with its Neil Youngesque leads, the waltzing "Where Did You Go" and the folk-rocking "Walking Restless" revivify rock & roll traditions some idiots argue have been played out. His lyrics cut "Deep Into the Bone" of relationships gone wrong, with just the right mix of defiance and regret. "You could have reached for me/But you didn't and you're not to blame," he sings on "Could Have Reached For You," before delivering the punch line: "I could have reached for you/But I didn't." Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hellberg, though, is his voice. Cracked, wobbly, imperfect, it oozes honesty and feeling; he's capable of delivering lines like "Who's to believe in a world so weird/When the one you once loved/Turn out to be a pain in the ass" without a trace of a smirk. Stripping down to just guitar and that ravaged voice gives even a hoary chestnut like Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" a new relevancy. "Songs made out of blue keys/And love in blue eyes/These are things that always stay in style," Hellberg croons in "True," and he's right. Mattias Hellberg fearlessly upholds truths that should be self-evident, and does it as well as any of the classics to which it's sure to be compared. Michael Toland