Unicorn - Emotional Wasteland (1995)
Mellow Records
Line-up:
Anders Mareby - Guitars, Cello, Vocals
Peter Edwinzon - Keyboards, Vocals
Dan Swanö - Lead Vocals, Drums
Tracklist:
1. Emotional Wasteland
2. At The End Of The Bridge
3. The Boy and The Impossible
4. Hiding Again
5. Suddenly
6. The Sorrow Song
7. Waterfall
8. After Before
Unlike Nightingale, Unicorn is an absolutely non-metal project from Dan Swanö. This project is way more poppy and more ear friendly. Almost all the songs are acoustic driven and features some good lyrics.
«Oh My, my emotional wasteland.
All the warriors of my heart
declared a war to fight the emptiness.
Oh my. my emotional wasteland.
all the citizens of my soul, let it
flow and fill my heart again. Again».
Most of the song have a lot of feeling. The lyrical themes are: Inner Stuggles, Love, Depression. Even if the lyrics are not the happiest ones, the music features some happy moments in songs like Emotional Wasteland and The Boy And The Impossible. To add some vibe the band decided to add a gospel singer in some of the songs which is pretty interesting. Those moments reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. Even some solos are Gilmour inspired. Some piano,flute and cello are featured during the intro of Hiding Again. Probably the most emotive song of the record. By emotive and I don't mean that this band is emo. The music is just beautiful and comes with emotions but this is definatly progressive rock.
For the instrumental aspect of the music, everything is pretty well done. This band is not a musical show-off but all the members know how to play their instruments. Some interesting instruments like flute, cello, piano and more are featured. Dan's voice is as always amazing. I mean, this guy can sing very well even if he has a really low voice. One of the interesting part of the instrumental is that it gives you some hard rock moments, some prog some folk, some gospel moments, etc. The music is so diverse that you cannot get bored. The guitar solo, like I said earlier are Gilmour inspired. The drumming by Swanô is simple but perfect for the music.
Now this is band is split-up but Dan is working on a project call Second Sky. It will be in the same vein of Unicorn.
Highlights:
Emotional Wasteland
Hidding Again
Suddenly
The Boy And The Impossible.