Son of a Plumber

Per Gessle is the lead songwriter of Swedish acts Gyllene Tider and Roxette.[4][5] In addition to this, he has released material as a solo artist; his 2003 album Mazarin is his most successful solo record.[6] It spent thirteen weeks at number one on the Swedish Albums Chart,[7] and sold over 335,000 copies in Sweden as of January 2005.[8] In 2004, Gyllene Tider reformed to celebrate their 25th anniversary,[9] releasing the studio album Finn 5 fel!, their first new material since 1996.[10] That album was also successful, selling 230,000 copies in Sweden by January 2005.[8] Finn 5 fel! was promoted by a concert tour of Sweden, with the band performing to over 58,000 people in a single night at the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg,[11] breaking an attendance record previously held by Bruce Springsteen.[12]

The album was recorded at Christoffer Lundquist's Aerosol Grey Machine studio in Vallarum, Scania.

Rather than release his next album as a solo artist, or with Gyllene Tider or Roxette,[upper-alpha 1] Gessle chose to work under the pseudonym Son of a Plumber.[2][15] Producer Clarence Öfwerman initially suggested the idea of working under a pseudonym, saying that recording an album under a new name could liberate Gessle creatively.[9] Gessle said he was reluctant to release another Swedish-language album following the success of Mazarin and Gyllene Tider,[16] and that he wanted Son of a Plumber to "feel like a debut, for my own sake. Because I'm afraid people will get tired of me."[6] He chose the Son of a Plumber pseudonym as a tribute to his father Kurt Gessle, who worked as a plumber.[4]

The album was recorded between November 2004 and August 2005 at Christoffer Lundquist's Aerosol Grey Machine studio in Scania, and was produced by Gessle, Öfwerman and Lundquist. They mixed the record at the same studio from August to October 2005.[17] Gessle claimed the studio – built in a 16th-century farm house – is haunted, and that he experienced multiple paranormal events during recording.[18] The album was recorded by many of the same musicians who contributed to Mazarin,[19] including Lundquist and Öfwerman,[6] and vocalist Helena Josefsson.[20]

Son of a Plumber differs from Gessle's previous work, in that he created only three demos for the album. Gessle said this was done at the behest of Öfwerman, who had worked with Gessle since 1986 and complained that he was "far too prepared before recording sessions". Gessle elaborated that he often created "very advanced demos. Demos that sometimes sound exactly like the end result." Instead, he performed the songs live in the studio on an acoustic guitar, which he said gave Öfwerman and Lundquist "a much better chance of influencing" the songs during the recording process.[4] Two of the demos – "Something in the System" and "I Like It Like That" – were created during sessions for Roxette's 2003 compilation The Pop Hits,[21][22] while a demo for "Jo-Anna Says" was recorded in January 2005.[23] All three demos were released for free download on Gessle's official website in 2006.[9] Two of the bonus tracks were also previously recorded: "A Girl Like You" was demoed for Roxette's 1999 album Have a Nice Day, but was not included on that record,[24] while "Keep the Radio On (This Is the Perfect Song)" appeared on 1995's The Lonely Boys, a collaborative album recorded alongside Nisse Hellberg of Wilmer X.[25]

Son of a Plumber is a double album consisting of 24 songs.[1][19] Despite the record being approximately 60 minutes in length, Gessle chose to release it as a double CD. He said this was done to simulate the experience he had listening to vinyl as a child, saying he wanted listeners to "feel that moment when one side of the vinyl ran out and you had to turn to the next. You had no idea what to expect from the other side. It was always a wonderful moment for me."[26] He said the album contains relatively personal lyrics,[16] and that it was best experienced when listened to in its entirety.[27] He wanted Son of a Plumber to be a cohesive album,[4] elaborating that it "doesn't have eighteen number one singles on it, but that was never the intention. It's a well-rounded, harmonious album and if you like it, you can play it again and again."[9] The record utilises panning techniques commonly found in late 1960s and early 1970s recordings, most notably drums appearing on the left channel and vocals appearing on the right channel.[9]

In 2014, Gessle said he considers Son of a Plumber "to be probably my best album. I think it's got a great vibe to it; great writing and a great production and it's just a very organic record that I really enjoy."[23] He described it as an homage to the music he listened to as a child,[9] specifically music released between 1969 and 1972, and said the album "spreads out in many different directions".[16] He said he rediscovered much of this music when transferring his vinyl collection to an iPod.[16][18]

Aftonbladet called it a "strange, highly personal mishmash of pop, psychedelia, singer-songwriter anthems, glam rock, West Coast rock and little instrumental Spaghetti Western songs."[16] Nöjesguiden noted influences from the acts such as Swedish band Hep Stars, The Beatles and Paul McCartney's solo work, as well as Elton John's collaborations with Kiki Dee, and said the album as a whole could be described as psychedelic power pop.[28] Musiklandet noted influences from late 1960s and early 1970s British psychedelic rock and progressive rock bands Marmalade, Love Affair, Dantalian's Chariot and McGuinness Flint, and compared it to several albums released in 1967, including Between the Buttons by the Rolling Stones, The Who Sell Out, Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and the discography of Andrew Loog Oldham's label Immediate Records.[2] Sydsvenskan said the album contained "echoes" of the Kinks, the Monkees, Serge Gainsbourg, Burt Bacharach, and Simon & Garfunkel.[19]

The album cover was created by Pär Wickholm and Kjell Andersson,[17] while Anton Corbijn provided photography for the booklet.[19] The booklet includes two pencil and watercolour drawings made by Gessle when he was approximately seven years old. The drawings represent a handball match and an ice hockey match,[4] with the latter showing Swedish ice hockey player Kjell-Rune Milton scoring a goal against Brynäs IF.[34] The booklet also includes a photograph of Gessle's parents, taken on their silver wedding anniversary, as well as pictures of Gessle's wife and son.[35]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Aftonbladet	[15]
Expressen	[36]
Göteborgs-Posten	[37]
Hallands Nyheter	[38]
Hallandsposten	Positive[32]
Nerikes Allehanda	[39]
Nöjesguiden	[28]
Norrbottens-Kuriren	[40]
Svenska Dagbladet	[30]
Sydsvenskan	[19]

The album received generally positive reviews from the Swedish music press.[41] Svenska Dagbladet said it contained some of the best songs Gessle had ever written. They noted the album's disparate influences and called Gessle a "pop nerd" and a postmodernist, elaborating that he was "freely quoting and, to a lesser extent, deconstructing pop music history". They highlighted the production and musicianship of Öfwerman, Lundquist, and Josefsson, and called the album "a musical statement worth taking seriously".[30] Both Göteborgs-Posten and Norrbottens-Kuriren expressed similar sentiments, with the former dubbing it a gourmet version of Gessle's work with Roxette and Gyllene Tider,[37] while the latter complimented Gessle for creating a "fresh and exciting" project.[40]

Hallands Nyheter described the album as a tribute to 1960s pop music and compared it to the Beatles's self-titled album, saying it featured unpredictable music.[38] Hallandsposten said the record may have sold more copies were it shorter in length, and praised Gessle for releasing an album not determined by commercial expectations.[32] Expressen commended the quality of songwriting, saying that many of the tracks sound like hit singles, and that the album leaves "a most unsatisfied longing for more" despite being a double album.[1] Nöjesguiden praised the scope of musicality found on the record, complimenting Gessle for "playing with sounds, harmonies and moods from his favourite records of the early seventies."[28]

Nerikes Allehanda said Son of a Plumber is "light years away from the hip attitude" of his previous English-language solo album, 1997's The World According to Gessle, saying it features Gessle "a bit wild, fragmented and playful, with a lot of inspiration and influences from pop history." They said the quality of the album's 25 songs was "relatively high", and that "With so many different sources of inspiration, it has become an astonishingly personal result."[39] Gradvall called the record Gessle's "prettiest release to date", saying it demonstrates his "astonishing breadth" as a songwriter. They highlighted the album's instrumental tracks, calling them "amazingly good instrumental songs that sound better than all the film music made in Sweden in the last 30 years."[35]

The album also received some mixed reviews. Dagensskiva said it contained songs that would have been better suited to Roxette's discography.[20] Aftonbladet complained about the album's length, saying it contained too much filler.[15] Sydsvenskan compared it negatively to Gessle's work with Gyllene Tider and Roxette, saying it did not contain enough potential singles.[19] Conversely, Musiklandet noted criticism of the album seemed to focus on how Gessle chose not to "trot out one potential hit song after another", and that this demonstrated "with embarrassing clarity, that said journalists have no idea about the pop history from which Gessle picks one delicious pop praline after another. Because Per Gessle knows his music history. He belongs to a category [of musicians] that loves English pop of the late 1960s, a period of time which is still unmatched when it came to putting together three-minute pop masterpieces", a style their writer described as "the most difficult style of music there is".[2]

• Vinyl editions include "Keep the Radio On (This Is the Perfect Song)" as a bonus track, appearing on disc 2 between "I Like It Like That" and "Something Happened Today".[17]

Credits adapted from the CD and vinyl liner notes.[17][47]

• Recorded at Aerosol Grey Machine, Vallarum, Sweden between November 2004 and August 2005.
• Mixed at Aerosol Grey Machine, Vallarum, Sweden between August 2005 and October 2005.
• CD version mastered by Bjorn Engelmann at Cutting Room, Stockholm.
• Vinyl version mastered by Janne Hansson at Atlantis Studio, Stockholm.

Musicians

• Per Gessle – vocals, composer, instrumentation, production, mixing, artwork and illustrations
• Jens Jansson – drums
• Helena Josefsson – vocals
• Christoffer Lundquist – backing vocals, instrumentation, string and horn arrangements, engineering, production and mixing
• Clarence Öfwerman – backing vocals, instrumentation, string and horn arrangements, production and mixing
• The Chico Chihuahua Vocal Ensemble – backing vocals
• The Funky Färs Härads Chamber Orchestra – strings and horns

Additional personnel

• Kjell Andersson – cover artwork
• Anton Corbijn – photography
• Lennart Haglund – engineering assistant
• U.N. Owen – photography
• Pär Wickholm – cover artwork

• Notes

• References

• Son Of a Plumber's official site
• PerGessle.net
• Gyllene Tider.com
• The Daily Roxette
• Roxette's official site