Pinup Guru

They Say...

Review by François Couture, All Music Guide

Tomas Bodin's first solo album was a lush, symphonic, multi-layered keyboard affair. This second opus outside his group, the Flower Kings, focuses for the most part on the prog rock power-trio format pioneered by the Nice and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Keyboard parts are complex and involve juggling with many instruments, but in general they remain closer to "on-stage feasibility," while bassist Jonas Reingold and drummer Zoltan Csörsz (both Flower Kings members too) lay down a solid rhythm section. Only "Blood" approaches the ambient moods of An Ordinary Night in My Ordinary Life. The title Pinup Guru comes from a line in Genesis' "The Battle of Epping Forest," but the music is much more Emerson or Rick Wakeman than Tony Banks, and that is made clear right from the start. The thunderous organ chords opening "Sodium Regale" announce that Bodin will indulge himself in gratuitous grandeur -- to listeners' enjoyment, especially when it is done so brilliantly and with tongue firmly placed in cheek. "What's Going On" and "Me and Liz," both over the ten-minute mark, reduce the Flower Kings' arrangements to a trio setting without losing any of the energy and complexity. After these two exhilarating highlights, the album loses its momentum. The finale of "Harlem Heat," where it transforms into a Negro spiritual, is a clever find, but afterwards listeners have to wait until the penultimate track, "The Last Eagle," to have an occasion to say "wow" again. "The Final Swig" closes the album in pure progressive rock galore, recapping the main themes of the previous songs to build up to a dramatic climax. Don't let Pinup Guru's weaker middle-third push you away; it serves up a tasty prog platter and stands as one of the very fine productions of this genre in 2002.