Be-bop-a-lula hela j***a dan

Albumrecension

The second greatest-hits compilation to chronicle the solo career of Thåström, Be-Bop-a-Lula Hela J***a Dan! spans the years 1989 to 2009 and includes a fine balance of early hits like "Pang, Boom, Krasch!" and more recent singles like "Kärlek Är För Dom." There aren't any new recordings, but there are alternate versions of "Kort Biografi Med Litet Testamente," "Sönder Boulevard," and "Ståaldrigstill." Its balance of old and new material is a more thorough representation of Thåström's solo career than the previous compilation, Solo, Vol. 1 (2006), which focused specifically on his early output. Oddly, Thåström's 1999 comeback album, Det Är Ni Som e Dom Konstiga Det Är Jag Som e Normal, is totally overlooked here, despite its multiple hit singles. Though Thåström's career goes all the way back to the '70s and includes stints with too many bands and side projects to count, his solo career can be easily split into two periods. His solo album debut, Thåström (1989), was followed by the industrial-leaning second album, Xplodera Mig 2000 (1991). This constitutes the first period of Thåström's solo career, which was put on hold for most of the '90s as he busied himself with the industrial rock band Peace, Love and Pitbulls. At the end of the decade, Thåström resumed his solo career with the aforementioned comeback album Det Är Ni Som e Dom Konstiga Det Är Jag Som e Normal. That chart-topping album was followed by another full-length solo effort every few years or so, including Mannen Som Blev en Gris (2002), Skebokvarnsv. 209 (2005), and Kärlek Är För Dom (2009). With the puzzling exception of Det Är Ni Som e Dom Konstiga Det Är Jag Som E Normal, all of these latter-day albums are represented on Be-Bop-a-Lula Hela J***a Dan! In total, there are five songs culled from his first couple albums and 11 songs culled from the four that followed, and they're sequenced non-chronologically, starting with the recent chart-topper "Fanfanfan," Thåström's first-ever number one hit single.