Sometimes, there is no rhyme or reason when an album is issued or reissued, and that makes no difference whether the artist or artists in question are well-known or not so well-known.
Agony Street was an intriguing project conceived in Europe in the early ’90s by two singer-songwriters, Gudmundur Bragason and the late Klas Qvist.
Their second album Songs For William was originally recorded in 1993, seemingly didn’t leave much impact in Europe, and was never released in the U.S. until some thirty years on.
Listening to the 17 tracks here (two tracks recorded in 2019 were added as tracks 16 & 17, supplanting the original 15-track 1993 album), you are simply left wondering how this true pop-rock gem didn’t catch the ear of a wider audience, particularly those that are tuned to that melody-oriented rock so popular from the ’60s and the prime Beatles, and all things Brian Wilson, on to these days and artists like Jeff Lynne and his electric Light Orchestra.
Throughout, Bragason and Qvist present themselves as excellent song craftsmen, vocalists, and instrumentalists, showing the synergy so reminiscent of Lennon and McCartney at the time when they had that synergy too.
The two tracks recorded in this century only show an evident fact this music presents – an element of timelessness, as this whole album could have been recorded in 1966, 1996, or yesterday.
