01. januar, 2006 20:56
Troels Skovgaard: "Troels Skovgaard" Selina Records 2003 Rock United (European Website of Rockmusic) Review by Endre "Bandi" Hübner, 4 April 2003
Rumors say that if you can pronounce the name of this guy for the first attempt in the record store you get his album for free. [Nah! Just kidding...] Now absolutely seriously this album is worth breaking your tongue with the name of the artist. Troels Skovgaard delivered a brilliant blues rock album, full of memorable melodies, touchy lyrics, and moody tracks with decent musicianship. As for comparisons Jeff Healey comes to mind but the arrangements and the thick backing vocals make Troels' music softer than Healey's. Some traditional blues lovers may shy away reading this but those who weren't into bluesy things so far should check the album, as it is easy to digest, very melodic, yet still not too commercial.
When playing the album first I got scared a bit as the first track "Almost a Sigh" has some very similar parts to "With a Little Help From My Friends" by the Beatles, also successfully covered by Joe Cocker but the following tunes washed my fear away. Troels' music is original, soulful, and well-played. He wrote all the music, arranged it, sang lead vocals, and played all guitars. He is also responsible for the production that turned out to be great. Especially if you take into account that the arrangements are very complex, we ain't talkin' about simple drum-bass-guitar stuff here but well- planned arrangements with horn sections, organ, piano, strings, accordion, percussion, lots of backing vocals, etc. included.
My personal favorites of the album were the moody "Dive For Pearls", the driving "Tempo Sprecato/Just Wanna Know" with its cools wah-wah intro, cool fill-in solos, and great sing-along refrain. This track should please a blues rock fan! "They Talk Too Much" is the typical "late night - blues bar - drunk too much in heartache" type of song you hear in a movie with good enough soundtrack. Great arrangement, cool organ and horn section fills, and very soulful lead and backing vocals; make sure to check this one out! All in all, this is a very good album, not as"hard" as some of you might like it but definitely worth a try.
01. januar, 2006 20:53
"Rock it"(German Rockmagazine), Feb. 2003 Troels Skovgaard: "Troels Skovgaard"
Did you follow last year's tour part one? In June 2002 Ralf was enthusiastic about the Bamboo Brothers' album. Since then their guitarist Troels Skovgaard has sent a solo-album on the market which should make the pulse of every westcoast-fan race.
The groovy "Almost a Sigh" with its tasty guitar passages is the first of 12 tracks which roughly lies somewhere between the Bamboo Brothers and the Eagles.
It gets really Glen-Freyish in the beautiful "Rosie", while the secretive, calm "Dive for Pearls" is decorated with lovely piano fills.
Mainly Troels keeps his album quite acustic and in the mid-tempo-area, not forgetting from time to time to pluck the strings and sparkle with delicate solos as in the bluesy "You just play".
Undoubtedly, Skovgaard is a great guitarplayer; add to this a pleasant and versatile voice which he uses in line with the multi-styled tracks (two of which are even in Italian).
All in all a strong summer-album.