The Hydden
Vagabond Songs

They have misspelled The Hidden, the Swiss duo that is giving us their new album Vagabond Songs. These songs for the vagabond makes up their second album, the first one arrived in 2017. And perhaps it is not necessary to have a good looking artwork for an album with songs for the vagabond, they will perhaps not look at it very often but I still think that nice artworks makes album more interesting as every sensory impression we take in is influence by the interaction of senses so a good looking artwork might actually make an album sound better in our minds. Still, I don’t look at the artworks too much before listening to the albums so that should not influence my views. But what can I then conclude about these ten Vagabond Songs?

Grungy heavy rock music is what it is, music with modern production and fairly good vocals, a touch of catchiness and a nice feel to it – kind of a relaxed album I think. It has a relatively fresh sound but I wouldn’t say that it has anything original to it. The songs show decent variation and the playing time is sensible so the conclusion have to be that it is a pretty good production overall.

It is the opening three tracks that are the finest of the album I think, these tracks are strong and there are some standout parts here – and there are some nice touches throughout the album even though the overall feel is that it isn’t really that special. I would claim that the album is quite good but it doesn’t stand out compared with much other that is similar. But while it doesn’t stand out it doesn’t have any particular weaknesses either and that is always a positive – but perhaps it could have been a slightly less cautious album where the duo could have dared to think more outside the box. But I take with me the second and third tracks when going on my vagabond tour, so at least some of the tracks would fit my vagabond song list.

Good album overall but Vagabond Songs will probably not be much remembered when some time has passed and it is quite far from the best albums I have heard this year. Most people will probably like this album to some degree, I am less sure that someone will love it.

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