Evert Taube

Evert Taube's ballads and sea shanties made him one of the absolutely most celebrated and popular Swedish singers of the first half of the 20th century. Despite the explicitness of his sailor stories, Taube had a most uncommon classicist approach, almost 19th century in some aspects, and he has been hugely important for Swedish singer/songwriters and folk singers alike. Apart from this he also wrote a good portion of the Swedish classics catalog, and quite a few of these songs are found on I Våra Hjärtan. The album has been reissued a number of times on CD, and contains songs recorded from 1928 to 1953, Taube's two-and-a-half most productive decades. As the slightly cheesy title (translates to "in our hearts") hints, the songs presented here are no rarities. But if most are very well-known to a Swedish audience, the pick is almost perfect and tells the story of his career in a homogenous way. Unfortunately, the language barrier may result in the album not being very accessible to a foreign audience. Some of the songs are possible to find in German, English, or various Scandinavian languages, recorded by other artists. But being deprived of Taube's harsh, yet brisk, voice, they more seldom give the impression of firsthand experiences being told. And when it comes to stories about the wild life onboard, that feeling is not to be overlooked. ~ Lars Lovén, Rovi