| 1. Ouvertyr. Very improvisational introduction with freely playing strings. Sometimes feel like a little fairy-tale melody and by-and-by turns into a more rocky overture, with electric guitars and drums. Wonderful harmonies! 2. Historien om Shack. [History of chess] Long opening introduction with electric piano, strings and brass. Tommy does a great job, hard to imagine someone else singing his part. I really like the double-rhythm in this song and the very intensive texts/lyrics which seems to create a third rhythm. 3. Där jag vill vara. [Where I want to be] Remembering the notes in the music sheet to the English version of Chess it's fairly good recreated. ("Like a music-box".) I think the string arrangement feels a little bit strange. I really like, though, when the song bursts into a more intensive part and then ends in ritardando. 4. Merano. Circus and market-feeling just as it has to be. Good arrangement, wonderful with those circus-flutes, as we remember from for example "Dream World". Merano sooner turns into a more rocky song (the both parts, which are quite different to each other, are so to speak "merged into" Merano) sung by Anders Ekborg and Helen Sjöberg. I can hardly say anything about this part but it feels a bit inhomogeneous. Merano is finished in the same manner as it begun. 5. Anatolij och Molokov. "Quarrel" between them presented in a drum- and string based song. It's almost half spoken in some parts. 6. Ungern '56. Anders and Helen do a great job on this song. The xylophone sounds a bit clumsy though. I like the string part a lot. When the choirs burst into singing you can almost imagine yourself you are in medieval church listening to a Gregorian choir. 7. Lämna inga dörrar på glänt. [Don't leave any doors open] Don't understand the piano part --- it's not sounding good. This is one of my personal favourites and I think the arrangement is a bit worse compared to the 1984 production (claps --- don't like 'em!). Helen is though performing it with perfection! 8. Jag vill se Shack. [I want to see chess] Rolf Skoglund is a good actor. The big problem as I consider it is that he isn't a good singer. 1) You can't hear if he's singing a text. 2) He cannot hit the notes properly. 3) The intonation = bad. I really like Björn Skiff's version and would like to hear him sing it in Swedish. The background was more "spacy" before. I really miss the reverb and delay. 9. Chess. Slower than before. It is a very good song performed as it should be (except for the tempo...). 10. Kvartett (En förbild för dygd och högsta ambition) [Quartet (A model of virtue and highest ambition)]. Rolf --- can't still hear anything of what he's saying. Don't talk about the lyrics book please. You ought not to have to read it to understand what they're saying! 11. Inte Jag. [Not me] Wonderful ballad with a bit of Kristina från Duvemåla-feeling. 12. Möte på en bro. [Meeting on a bridge] Sounds almost as the original version - with the exception that the lyrics are in Swedish :). 13. I mitt hjärtas land. [In the country of my heart] Anthem is Tommy's triumph song no 1. It's as good as it always is. I think there's nothing that is necessary to add or change. CD 2. 1. Florence lämnar Freddie. [Florence leaves Freddie] High tempo with drums and brass dominates the introduction of this song. Helen is good at yelling! 2. Vem ser ett barn. [Who sees a child] The manipulated voice is gone and the synthy-background is too. It's more 90s than 80s, and I think that's both negative and positive. The artificial instruments have been replaced by genuine and real ones. Anders is a very talented singer and on this song he does a great job! It's swinging and I'm shivering! 3. Ni dömer mig. [You judge me] Josefin's first song in the musical. (Why does she have to wait so long?) Interesting arrangement and composition. At times very intense. 4. Om han var här. [If he was here] "Heaven Help My Heart" in English. Even here is the xylophone (perhaps synthesizer) sounding not-so-good used. Have liked this song ever since I first heard it and even more with "Every Good Man" in mind. 5. Han är en man, han är ett barn. [He is a man, he is a child] The perfect song for the Ainbusk/Josefin Nilsson fan. Is perfectly suited for her and as well as most of the other actors/singers she does a great job. 6. Vem kunde ana. [Who could imagine] I "can shake loose" to this song! Very rocky, very good sung. 7. Drömmar av glas. [Dreams made of glass] As the overture this song begins with an "improvised" introduction, this time dominated with strings. Somewhere in the middle of it there is a part in the backing track played by a church organ. See if you can hear it yourself! 8. Jag vill se Shack. [I want to see chess] See comments above. 9. Jag vet vad han vill. [I know what he wants] The sound of the electric piano is a bit different to the 80s-version and I prefer that "background version". I think Helen and Josefin perform the song with more feeling (taking what the story is really about in consideration) than Elaine and Barbara. 10. Glöm mig om du kan. [Forget me if you can] "When the water rolls out to the sea" --- wonderful to hear!!! Björn and Benny must have come to think something other of this song! Revalued it! It is going to be very interesting to hear to English version of it! 11. Capablanca. A choir tune. (Hard to hear what's said. Is the lyrics anything else than "Capablanca"? No lyrics in the lyrics book.) 12. Drömmar av glas / Historien om Shack. [Dreams made of glass / The history about chess]. Wonderful! This is really going to be a favourite version of Chess. It's interesting to hear new arrangements, new lyrics and new ways in using the musical. It's packed very luxurious in a marvellous blue colour --- actually my favourite shade of blue and the two CDs themselves are picture discs. I miss Embassy Lament and One Night in Bangkok, though. Two of my absolute favourites. Robin Andersson, Stockholm, Sweden | 