Kent - The Dukes of Sweden

Eleven number-one albums out of twelve released, more than three million copies sold, radio airwaves flooded with their songs, consistently packed-out concerts and an entire generation of music fans who literally grew up with them. This is what Kent meant for Sweden: from the mid-Nineties through to roughly the same point in the 2010s, they utterly dominated at home and earned widespread respect across Scandinavia. Sure, they also failed in their attempt to break into the rest of Europe and the United States, when they re-recorded their late-Nineties songs in English and backed the releases with proper tours that got little traction. But all things considered, this band's story has to be regarded as a genuine success story.

To fully grasp just how followed and loved Kent were in Sweden, it's enough to say that, once they split up, national television aired a two-hour documentary in which, retracing the entire making of their final album, the band explained the reasons behind the breakup - which, in short, came down to the fact that frontman Jocke Berg had grown tired of the negative effects of fame and wanted to step out of the spotlight for good.

The core lineup of Kent that stayed together from beginning to end had already been part of another band, Jones & Giftet, as far back as 1990. Joakim "Jocke" Berg on vocals, Martin Sköld on bass, Markus Mustonen on drums and Finnish guitarist Sami Sirviö played alongside Thomas Bergvist on synth, but when the latter was replaced by Martin Roos, the band's name changed first to Havsänglar and then, following their collective move to Stockholm, to Kent. In the capital, the five-piece managed to get their music heard by the right people, Roos dropped the synths to play rhythm guitar and give the band a purely rock sound, and the time came to release their debut album.

Jocke Berg, a cantankerous genius

At the centre of everything, right from the start, is the figure of Jocke Berg, a decisive presence throughout the band's entire trajectory, thanks to his compositional and performing abilities as well as his innate leadership. As mentioned above, even the band's split was down to his decision, and in the documentary the other members make it clear they would have carried on, but that Berg was so crucial to the band's whole dynamic that, once he stepped back, there was no longer any point in continuing.

Berg had two unquestionable merits. First of all, he was an unrivalled creator of melodies: across all twelve albums, plus the many B-sides, the melodic quality never faltered, even on the less successful records. Moreover, vocally, he was not only an expressive, stylish and charismatic performer, but also someone capable of giving the Swedish language - full of hard, guttural sounds - a startling musicality.

More questionable, on the other hand, are his extra-musical attitudes, especially towards fans. Berg, in fact, was always fairly active in online discussions, back before the rise of social networks, when there were forums dedicated to bands, but he often used them to berate fans, addressing them in anything but diplomatic tones. He didn't behave any better towards international followers, either, though the approach was different, since in that case he displayed an almost ostentatious, unrelenting indifference. After Kent abandoned international markets, a fair number of people kept following the band anyway, keeping the forum alive and travelling especially to Scandinavia for their concerts, yet not a single word of thanks ever came from him or the rest of the band - as if the blame for that failure lay with the very people who had done everything they could to make things work better.

Musically, as we'll see, Kent went through major stylistic shifts over time, and at least some of that input came from the other members of the group too, but a songwriter and singer of that calibre could hardly avoid being a dominant figure, and so he remained, right to the end.

The early days as a rock band and the first successes

Kent (1995) is the only album by the band not to have topped the national charts, and this is not the only thing that sets it apart from the rest. The style, in fact, is decidedly rawer and more angular than anything the group would go on to record afterwards. The melodies are less rounded and defined, the vocals pay little attention to formal polish, and the sound, pure rock, is riddled with assorted rough edges. Musically, Kent have almost always drawn inspiration from the UK, but here, and only here, they sound more like an American band, and more specifically, like a group belonging to that late-Eighties lineage shared by Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and Lemonheads.

The sonic dynamics are all built on the suggestions created by distortion, reverb and layering, with imperfection as the guiding star of both style and aesthetic. The album stands apart from the bands mentioned above above all for a sense of airiness and positivity that is absent in them, but which here is quite developed. The songs, in their slightly prickly nature, also carry something reassuring for the attentive listener, or for anyone willing to give them more than one chance. It's easy to let yourself be almost lulled by them, or to picture them as the soundtrack to an intense journey that is nonetheless free of jolts or excessive hardship.

An important aspect of this work is the variety from one track to the next, starting with its most representative episodes, namely the singles. “När det blåser på månen” is a melancholic, introspective ballad; “Som vatten” is an enveloping, intriguing midtempo; “Frank”, which closes the album, again moves at a slow pace but carries a flavour of vindication and a desire to close a chapter while seeing its positive sides; “Jag vill inte vara rädd”, on the other hand, represents the album's more adrenaline-fuelled side and is its qualitative peak, managing to sound gripping without overdoing the power, instead deploying a melody that never leaves your head and that is well served by a sound design of great immediacy, yet never banal or predictable. The other songs, however, are all up to the task, and there is never a single dip across the whole record.

It's only natural that this debut didn't sell like all the albums that followed, but for the more attentive listeners, Kent already looked like rough diamonds with virtually limitless potential, and were therefore worth following closely.

It takes only a year to get confirmation of this feeling and to find a band that has unquestionably improved, capable for the first time - and deservedly so - of topping the charts. Verkligen (1996) comes out exactly one year after its predecessor (both on 15 March) and builds on the debut, improving on it in several respects. The band has become a quartet, following Martin Roos's departure, but this doesn't stop them from taking a decisive step forward. The melodies are more rounded and engaging; the vocals are more disciplined without losing any intensity; the sound is also cleaner, and there's a far more detailed exploration of dynamics, because, having abandoned those tied to distortion and reverb, the focus shifts more to the interplay between vocal and guitar melodic lines, between rising and falling intensity, between fullness and emptiness, and between the musical-vocal parts and the rhythm section. The compositional approach is also more thorough, with some songs breaking free of the verse-chorus structure to become long rides featuring substantial instrumental suites within them.

Verkligen is an album of great immediacy, yet one containing numerous refinements, all in service of the songs and capable of showing them off at their best. In terms of reference points, the Radiohead of “The Bends” are certainly an unavoidable comparison, but the Oxford band's album is angrier and more powerful, while Kent's is more flowing and airy.

The lead single that would carry the whole album is “Kräm (så nära får ingen gå)”, a flawless song, extremely effective in its straightforwardness, containing many of the qualities mentioned so far. In particular, the way the opening guitar riff feeds into the chorus is perfect and makes the track truly compelling.

As subsequent singles, the band first chose the sparkling “Halka” and then gave room to the album's introspective side with the excellent ballad “Gravitation”. But in truth, the best of the record lies elsewhere, namely in an emotionally intense and deeply felt “Istället för ljud”, whose chorus explosion after the quiet of the verse cannot fail to move you, and in the two tracks that, as mentioned, break away from the traditional song form, namely “En timme en minut” and the closing “Vi kan väl vänta tills imorgon”, both capable of taking the listener on genuine journeys - the first with an almost circular motion, the second built on a gradual crescendo - and both so engaging that they overcome any risk of tedium, despite their considerable length.

Beyond its commercial success, Kent, thanks to Verkligen, began racking up music awards at home, and were already one of the most important names on the Scandinavian pop-rock scene.

The arrival of Harri Mänty and the enrichment of the sound

The path toward continuous qualitative improvement was now a choice with no turning back, and to accomplish this mission, Kent recruited a second guitarist, the Swedish-born, Finland-raised Harri Mänty, and let a year and eight months pass before releasing their third album.

Isola hit stores on 12 November 1997 and remains, to this day, one of the fans' favourite albums, if not the most beloved of all. In particular, the lead single “Om du var här” and the other 45, the album's closing track “747”, are among the most iconic moments in the band's extensive output. The first belongs to those built on the verse-chorus structure, but has a unique way of conveying sadness and a desire for vindication, with that opening guitar line so intense and instantly captivating, the verse melody that follows it with total naturalness, and the devastating, no-holds-barred chorus. The second, meanwhile, belongs to the category of longer tracks with a freer form, also starting from an effective guitar line and a vocal melody that pairs perfectly with it, but in softer tones, both musically and emotionally, letting the imagination roam around this initial skeleton to create a result of bewitching charm.

The whole album splendidly stages the desire to build on the hugely successful previous record and refine its formula. The Kent of Isola are in a darker mode than in their past, and if one still wanted to play the reference game, to Radiohead one could add the Suede of the Bernard Butler era. The melodies are ever more flawless, the guitar embroidery interacts better and better with the main melodic lines and the rhythm section, the vocals sound increasingly spontaneous, expressive and profound, the arrangements are more complex, yet the various elements are put together so that overall cohesion never falters. However, other elements beyond the usual rock framework also start to emerge - such as piano, strings, a drum machine - and the album leaves you breathless from first moment to last.

If one wants to single out a few particularly successful episodes, mention must be made of the opening “Livräddaren”, with its devastating ups and downs and enveloping atmosphere, the extremely delicate “Innan allting tar slut”, ethereal and heartrending at once thanks, among other things, to a perfect use of the drum machine that helps give the track an underlying yet perceptible vitality, and a “Bianca” that bucks the record's trend, since it harks back almost more to the band's past, with its rough, cutting guitars, and which, placed at the start of the album's second half, provides the necessary change of direction to add a bit more unpredictability and put the listener in the right frame of mind.

Year-end accolades piled up, but the Swedish band decided not to rest on their laurels and instead attempted to re-record the album in English, adding an unreleased track and trying to break through in the rest of Europe and in the United States. We'll explore this choice in more detail in the next section; here we'll just say that, because of it, the fourth album Hagnesta Hill would arrive, in its Swedish version, more than two years after “Isola”, namely on 6 December 1999.

Hagnesta Hill raises the bar of ambition even further for Kent. There are not just more songs, but above all more ideas, both compositionally and sonically, with a greater number of instruments and dynamics never before attempted in the arrangements. The lead single "Musik Non Stop" is the band's first attempt at writing a danceable track; "Ett tidsfördriv att dö för" represents the desire to follow through on the piano ballad path already explored with the aforementioned "Innan allting tar slut"; "Berg & Dalvana" features the most prominent use of cymbals in the rhythm section the band had ever recorded.

The rest of the album revisits the whole of the band's previous repertoire, but always with some added detail or improvement, including the use of reverb, which hadn't been heard since the debut. It's a record in which a near-obsessive attention to every conceivable aspect is clearly perceptible, and in terms of production and execution it is undoubtedly a further step forward. Although some fans judged it less spontaneous than Isola, Hagnesta Hill is objectively a majestic record, one that closes out the first phase of Kent's career as well as could be hoped for – the phase in which every album was, in some way, an evolution of the one before it.

Unlike the previous record, the best songs here weren't chosen as singles, even though the ballad "Kevlarsjäl" and the sturdy "En himmelsk drog" certainly hold their own. The prize for the finest track undoubtedly goes to the spectacular "Stoppa mig juni (lilla ego)": a rollercoaster of emotions wrapped in a package of almost dizzying aesthetic beauty, nearly six and a half minutes of pure heaven. Also worth flagging is "Beskyddaren", both airy and poignant at once, perfect in its melody and in a chameleon-like arrangement that brings out the best in the song's skeleton at every turn, featuring one of Jocke Berg's most heartfelt vocal performances.

Every track would deserve closer examination, and while every song Kent had put to record up to this point was at least good, here it never dips below excellence.

The English-language versions

Here we arrive at the most controversial chapter of Kent's career, the one in which the band first reissues Isola and then Hagnesta Hill with English vocals, with some adjustments compared to the Swedish versions, with the declared aim of broadening their following across Europe, if not the whole world. Bmg's investment is massive, both in terms of how widely the records are distributed and in the scale of the tours supporting them, with the band kept extremely busy across Europe and the United States.

As for the adjustments we mentioned: Isola contains one extra song, titled "Velvet", but otherwise sticks closely to its Swedish twin, even in the track order; Hagnesta Hill, however, shows far more differences: the track order is slightly altered, and two songs ("Ett tidsfördriv att dö för" and "Insekter") are not translated, replaced instead by two new English-language tracks ("Quiet Heart" and "Just Like Money").

It's difficult, more than twenty years on and with everything Kent went on to achieve, to judge the merits of these reworkings. Undoubtedly, for the less attentive listener, or one less interested in close analysis, the first impression is that it's better to listen to music sung in a language you know, or one you're at least more used to; but for those with a more open mind, who aren't put off by the language barrier, the Swedish versions are unquestionably better, because they sound more natural, truer and more deeply felt. The vocal performances in particular are clearly superior in Swedish, because you can plainly hear that Berg sings in English as if he were forced to, without the same interpretive passion or that ability to stray slightly from the meter to give the song extra emotional drive. This shortfall is especially clear on the Hagnesta Hill tracks, plain to hear for anyone willing to pay even a little attention. The frontman had probably already realised it wasn't worth pursuing this path further.

The choice, however, shouldn't be condemned in toto: first of all, because without it, those who went on to follow Kent outside Scandinavia from this point forward would likely have had a much harder time ever coming across the band; it should also be said that, from a market standpoint, the ground seemed fertile, given that bands like Radiohead and Travis were dominating, and Kent could be seen as a band capable of reworking that style in a personal, innovative way. Finally, a couple of the English versions are undoubtedly successful, namely "If You Were Here" (from Om du var här) and "747". Whether it's down to the similar meter or the well-crafted imagery in the English lyrics ("I don't sleep I dream" and "Silence, a violent whisper"), these two tracks at least have almost nothing to envy in the originals.

Another point in favour of the attempt to sing in English is how well the related concerts came off, or at least the one this writer attended at the Rolling Stone in Milan in May 2000. The crowd barely numbered a hundred people, but on stage the band played superbly and seemed to be having a great time. There was even a bit of back-and-forth with the fans from a relaxed, good-humoured Berg: for the few who had believed in it, a night to remember.

The B-sides collection: shining a light on the hidden repertoire with creativity

The aforementioned first phase of Kent's career has an important postscript at the end of 2000, specifically on November 29: the double B-side collection is released, simply titled B-Sidor 95-00. Like many bands of the era, Kent placed real importance on the songs they included on CD singles, so it was only fitting to properly showcase this side of the group's creative effort too. Notably, unlike previous releases, this compilation was distributed as widely as the English-language records, meaning it was likely the first point of contact many international fans had with vocals in the band's native language.

True to their nature as a band always on the move creatively, Kent didn't content themselves with simply gathering up the songs for the collection, but enriched it with two new tracks and two reworkings of B-sides already featured in this compilation. This new material, unsurprisingly, closely echoes the content of Hagnesta Hill, and in terms of quality too, the result matches the standard of the latest album. The rest of the collection fully reflects the band's album-by-album evolution, so that, depending on which single they were drawn from, the B-sides faithfully represent their respective eras. The second disc, meanwhile, includes a few more eccentric versions, already featured on the singles, which showcase a carefree urge to experiment.

Some of these B-sides remain, to this day, among the fans' best-loved songs, and in some cases the band has performed them live to everyone's great delight. Chief among them is "Utan dina andetag", which sits firmly at the top of their most popular songs on Spotify and was even played on the farewell tour. On disc one, "Elever" and "December" deserve a mention, while on disc two the opening one-two punch of "Livrädd med stil" and "Verkligen" stands out (the mere fact that an album was named after a B-side should tell you how important the latter was).

This compilation also sold extremely well, reaching a very respectable number 2 on the charts, remarkably high for a collection of B-sides. For Kent, it was a shot of confidence after the failed attempt to significantly broaden their international following; in Sweden they were increasingly bona fide stars, and now it was time for them to give the public an album capable of sending them into orbit commercially.

The years of peak commercial success

It's hard to imagine a band getting even more successful after three consecutive albums hitting number 1, but with Vapen & Ammunition, released on April 15, 2002, that's exactly what happens for Kent. This is in fact the only album with which the band topped the charts simultaneously not only in Sweden, but also in Norway and Finland, and it's by far Kent's best-selling album, with a whopping 600,000 copies sold. All this happened without a supporting tour, and when the band finally wanted to play live at least once, on June 6, 2003 — more than a year after the album's release — they were so beloved that they had no trouble filling Stockholm's stadium, with one further detail that was certainly significant and not easy to pull off: they managed to get every single person at the show to dress entirely in white.

But how should Vapen & Ammunition be judged on a purely qualitative level? As mentioned, every Kent record, even the least successful one, still has the merit of containing excellent melodies, and here Berg's inspiration on that front is certainly still very much alive. The problem with the album is precisely that it was openly conceived to achieve maximum commercial success. That's not a flaw in itself, but in practice it means the songs tend to follow a rather predictable path, and little remains of the emotional intensity that had defined Kent up to this point. The sound is tamer, not just because of the greater presence of keyboards and synths, but also due to a clear choice never to step outside the lines. The same goes for the vocal performances, accompanied for the first time by female voices, both in duets and as backing vocals, and for the songwriting too, with the disappearance of long, elaborate tracks in favor of 100% adherence to the traditional song format.

The band had made clear, before the album's release, that their goal was to create a record with ten potential singles out of ten songs, and that goal was achieved — unfortunately at the expense of the qualities mentioned above. Only a handful of songs retain real emotional impact, and they're the more introspective ones: “Duett”, which, as the title suggests, is a duet with singer Titiyo and is a gentle song that still manages to hit the right notes to be genuinely moving, and the two closing tracks, “Elite” and “Sverige”, the former coming closest to the band's past sound and the latter a successful experiment for voice and acoustic guitar alone.

That said, calling it a bad album would be going too far, and even though it undoubtedly ranks among Kent's weaker efforts, it can still be an enjoyable listen, both — as mentioned — thanks to the excellent melodies, and because the level of polish never becomes excessive.

“Pärlor” and “Socker”, in particular, are sufficiently sparkling and effective. The chart-smashing singles “Dom andra” and “Kärleken väntar” are decent songs, and the only track on the album that can undoubtedly be called bad is the other single, “FF”, a cheap and utterly banal foray into dance territory — though, as mentioned, it proved hugely popular with the general public. At least the “FF” single has the merit of being a double A-side featuring “VinterNoll2”, a jolt of vitality and rock intensity that was sorely needed, and one that would even end up in the hugely popular video game “Guitar Hero: World Tour”.

International fans would be left waiting a while for the English-language version, which, however, would never arrive. Years later, a demo version of the “Duett” remake would be released, titled “Love Undone”, decent enough despite its fairly banal lyrics, but that would be it. We would never again hear Jocke Berg sing in English.

The return of intensity

After the triumphant “white concert” in Stockholm, Kent take a well-deserved year off and then reconvene to record their sixth album, released on March 15 (curiously, the same date as their first two records) of 2005.

Du & jag döden puts guitars back at the center of the sound and, above all, marks the return of the intensity that had defined Kent before Vapen & Ammunition. It's a rather dark album, starting with the title and the cover art, and notably the CD version is sold in a digipack that, like all digipacks, is transparent, but dark, with even the side read by the CD player being black rather than the usual grey.

Jocke Berg, always very candid in his statements, had distanced himself from the previous record, and he backs up his words with action. As a result, all the tracks turn out to be fairly long, even the ones closer to the traditional song format, where, alongside the guitars, the bass plays a crucial role.

It's a dense and somewhat monolithic album, melodic, yet conveying a sense of impenetrability, through a thick layer of darkness, poised between life and death.

Moving on to the individual songs, we can't help but start with one of the most important of Kent's entire career, one that many fans consider their absolute best: “Mannen i den vita hatten (16 år senare)”, a true whirlwind of incredible melodies, perfect sounds and uncontainable emotion. After the overly formulaic songwriting of the previous record, a song like this — free-form, dynamically flowing, with a powerful, overwhelming final crescendo — was exactly what was needed. The track is so successful that the band chooses it as the closer for their live shows from this point on until the end of their career, replacing the legendary “747”.

The whole album is nonetheless of excellent quality, and the only song that falls a bit below the average is precisely the lead single “Max 500”, which had in fact left fans somewhat worried. Luckily, one of the best songs is the opening track “400 slag”, which immediately puts the listener in the right frame of mind to enjoy the rest of the album, with the opening bassline setting the stage perfectly, highly effective sonic layering, vocal delivery finally as heartfelt as in the band's best moments, and, as mentioned, simply irresistible melodic and rhythmic elements.

The album, as is by now obvious, tops the Swedish charts and does extremely well across the rest of Scandinavia too. Sure, it sells far fewer copies than its predecessor, but its quality is higher, allowing Kent to showcase all their strengths again, albeit in a somewhat different guise. Even today, Du & jag döden remains one of their albums that fans agree on most.

The only thing that leaves you a little disappointed is that, once again, Kent don't support the album with a tour. At least, though, this choice allows the band to shut themselves back in the studio to record more excellent music, and indeed, at the end of the year comes the only EP in the Swedes' career. The hjärta & smärta EP hits stores on November 2nd, with a cover that's predominantly white, as a counterpoint to the black of the previous album, and contains 5 songs that have rightly been collected together, separate from any other compilation, precisely because they belong to a musical world all their own, in which the arrangements are airier than ever and every single musical element feels like it's literally taking its own space and breathing deeply. Compactness in artistic production will always remain one of Kent's defining traits, but here the band experiments with something different, again with very convincing results.

Among the EP's songs, a magnificent 'Dom som försvann' stands out, with the brilliant idea of using a children's choir in just the right way to give even more pathos to a track that caresses and shakes you at the same time. This EP too achieves excellent results on the various Scandinavian charts, cementing 2005 as one of the best years in Kent's long career.

Harri Mänty's departure and the synth turn

In November 2006, Kent began recording their next album, but after just one month, rhythm guitarist Harri Mänty left the band after ten years in its ranks. The news leaves fans rather shaken, and when Tillbaka Till Samtiden hits stores on October 17, 2007, it catches everyone off guard, marking Kent's first real synth turn. We'll never know whether this radically different sound was the cause or the consequence of Mänty's departure, but, from statements made by the other guitarist, Sami Sirviö, we know that the use of six strings was in any case bound to decrease significantly, since he himself had admittedly grown tired of that sound.

A single reference is enough to convey the album's content from a purely sonic standpoint, and we're talking about Depeche Mode. The influence of Gahan, Gore & co. is evident throughout the record, but that only applies to the type of sound itself, while as far as the structuring of the arrangements and the melodic and vocal style go, it's clear that this is still Kent, quite skilled at keeping their core traits intact even in unfamiliar sonic clothing. It's a carefree, danceable record, but one that, in a few songs, once again offers genuine, sincere introspection.

That said, there's one aspect in which several other Kent albums are preferable to this one, and that's the purely melodic side. Almost all the songs, in fact, have decent or even good melodies, but not excellent ones, like those the band had accustomed its fans to. The only three tracks that live up to that high standard are the opener 'Elefanter', nasty enough to immediately grab the listener's attention, the lead single 'Ingenting', highly danceable and irresistible both melodically and rhythmically, and the ballad 'Columbus', the ideal depiction of waking up groggily with the sun already high after a night of excess. The other songs, as mentioned, have a bit less going for them than these, but they're all still very solid and enjoyable, without exception.

Tillbaka Till Samtiden is, in short, a good album. In a hypothetical ranking, it would almost certainly land in the bottom half, but not through any particular fault of its own, simply because, within Kent's catalogue, the competition is ruthless. Its importance also lies in showing how the Swedish band can feel just as at home on terrain different from what they'd explored before, as well as in being a sort of dress rehearsal for the follow-up, where this synth-based style would be pushed to its peak.

Tillbaka Till Samtiden also manages to cement the bond between the band's core members, pushing them, after several years, to embark on two separate tours, one timed with the album's release and another a few months later, in the winter of 2008. The large number of dates also allows international fans to travel to Scandinavia: this writer attended the Norrköping date in February 2008. The show turns out to be splendid, showcasing a band in tremendous form.

Later in 2008 also comes the release of the Kent Box, a lavish box set at a modest price, containing every album released up to that point along with the B-sides collection, and almost every one of them comes with bonus tracks, for a total of 26, 15 of which are previously unreleased. For fans it's an unmissable purchase, both for the beauty of the object itself and for its content, and naturally this release too tops the Swedish charts.

The band, however, doesn't stop there, and for the next album they go all out, building their own recording studio inside Berlin's Meistersaal, a venue normally used for concerts, spending as much as 3 million Swedish kronor, around 300,000 euros. For the first time, Joakim Berg works on composing all the songs, not just some of them as on previous albums, together with bassist Martin Sköld.

When Röd hits stores on November 6, 2009, it leaves everyone astonished, throwing some fans off while thrilling many others.

Röd shows the highest level of ambition the Swedish band had ever reached, in every respect. The melodies are almost all slow-building, made to be absorbed by the listener only after several listens, yet still always accessible enough. Each song is its own story in this regard, because the way the compositional ideas develop and intersect is always different. The range of tones Berg sings in is also wider than in the past, but the area where Kent really show they want to push beyond what they've done so far is the sound. The arrangements are always highly intricate, in every respect: the layering of the synthetic component, the role, power and shaping of the riffs on the guitar side, the use of technology to enrich the rhythm section. None of this stays the same from one track to the next, whether due to the nature of these elements themselves, their degree of complexity, or ultimately how they're made to interact with one another. Naturally, the combination of writing and production described in this way creates an even more dizzying whirlwind.

Despite the significance of the challenge the band set out to tackle, everything is built to perfection from the first note to the last, in what, even today, deserves to be considered their finest work overall. The taste, refinement and expressive power are always at their peak, and even the fact that the vocals are in Swedish has an even greater impact than usual, because its sound seems more suited than ever to giving substance to the strengths outlined above, and so, even more than in the past, it doesn't matter understanding what Berg is singing, because what reaches your ears is overwhelming and leaves you breathless.

It's not easy to single out two or three songs as more significant than the others, but one can't help starting with the masterpiece 'Vals för Satan (Din vän pessimisten)', a raging river of rhythms, melodies and emotions, with a chorus so perfect and devastating it leaves you frozen. It's also worth mentioning the epic 'Sjukhus', which first grows organically before suddenly transforming. Finally, one can't help but end with the closer 'Det finns inga ord', which bucks the trend of the rest of the album, being softer and more linear: the best way to close out such an uncompromising record, helped also by a gorgeous melody and a vocal performance perfectly suited to the occasion.

After the predictable sales success, the band embarks on a long tour which, curiously, starts about three months after the release. This writer manages to grab a ticket for the opening date, at Annexet in Stockholm in February 2010, and realizes that those months of waiting gave the four of them further outlet for their unstoppable creativity, since the live set shows extensive reworkings and changes to the studio versions, not just from this album but across their entire catalogue. The band had chosen to play four dates in the capital at a small venue, instead of one at a big arena, in order to give audiences maximum impact, and indeed the show is irresistible. Kent's hunger to explore and surprise is, at this point, nothing short of voracious.

Unexpectedly, though, having reached their peak, Kent fall apart badly within a few months. On 30 June 2010, out of the blue, comes En plats i solen, which, while still keeping synths as the dominant element of the sound, turns out to be decidedly more commercial and, it has to be said, banal compared not only to the previous record, but to the band's entire catalogue. According to Jocke Berg, a few songs were left over from the creative cycle of Röd, and the four of them didn't want to waste them. What the frontman probably didn't say is that, with summer having arrived in the meantime, for once Kent cared even less than usual about artistic integrity and simply wanted to put together an especially easy-listening record suited to the season of its release.

It would be unfair to condemn Kent for this act of self-indulgence, but the record itself is indefensible and doesn't even deserve to have time wasted on it. Sales are nonetheless very high, so the band achieves the goal it set for itself, while for fans it's simply necessary to acknowledge the existence of En plats i solen and move on.

The final phase of the career: a more balanced sound and the last masterpiece

Despite their many years of career behind them, Kent can't seem to go more than two years in a row without releasing an album. 2012, then, is the right year, and right on schedule, Jag är inte rädd för mörkret arrives on 25 April. The single "999" had suggested a return to a more guitar-driven sound, and, given its length and its loose adherence to traditional song form, one might have imagined it as the album's closing track. Instead, the song in question is the opener, and listening to the record you'll discover that yes, Kent have picked up their guitars again, but they certainly haven't abandoned synths either.

Jag är inte rädd för mörkret showcases a band that, on one hand, no longer feels like going overboard, but on the other doesn't want to deny itself anything. As a result, there are plenty of elements at play, but each one is used sparingly, resulting in an all-round sound the band had never quite achieved before. Kent are by now highly skilled, both as musicians and in terms of constructing sonic dynamics, so the songs flow along calmly, without particular ambition but with a lot of care in the details and, above all, in the dosing of the many instruments used, and with no shortage of vitality. Gone is the boldness of a top-tier work like Röd, or the emotional power of a Hagnesta Hill or a Du & jag döden; in their place, though, there's still a desire to experiment, albeit in a different way, combining creativity with immediacy.

The criticism one could level at this record is that, just as with Tillbaka Till Samtiden, it doesn't fully maintain consistent quality on the melodic front. Between the two, though, it's still preferable to the 2007 album. Among the tracks, a vital, robust "Petroleum" and an airy, enveloping "Tänd på" stand out. Both are simple and straightforward, but the arrangement, vocal performance and melody have a freshness that makes them especially worthwhile and engaging.

Even without making it into the narrow selection of "recommended albums" in the left-hand column of this page, Jag är inte rädd för mörkret remains a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Naturally, success is guaranteed once again this time too, and the band sets off on tour once more. This time, the writer manages to attend two shows, quite different from each other despite being part of the same tour. Both take place in August 2012, so outdoors, with the Stockholm show held in a huge space outside the Museum of Natural History, turning into a festive event in which the band gives its all, even playing unexpected rarities and delivering the longest set of the entire tour, while the Turku show, in Finland, is much more intimate and low-key, and actually comes out on top in terms of sound quality.

Another two years go by, and anyone who might have thought Kent had lost the will to truly take risks is pleasantly surprised starting on 30 April 2014. Tigerdrottningen, in fact, turns out to be the last occasion on which the four of them will still push hard on the pedal of ambition, crafting the masterpiece that will precede their decision to split up. As with Röd, the band travels abroad, this time going as far as Los Angeles, drawing inspiration from the city's atmosphere and from the chance to use a top-notch facility like Conway Recording Studio. The result is of the highest order: one of the records on which Kent worked hardest at experimenting with new solutions in terms of arrangements and, to a lesser extent, in the songwriting itself.

The sound is highly varied from every angle: power, intensity, saturation, complexity. Every song differs from the next in these respects, and the range is also very wide rhythmically. The band also goes back to using female voices, not just for duets, as in the past, but also, if not primarily, to create entrancing vocal harmonies with Berg's singing. Here too, the vocal tone is never the same from one moment to the next, moving from passages with powerful choruses to others that are far more delicate. As for the songwriting, there's decidedly more going on than the usual split between shorter, straightforward songs and longer, more free-form ones. The single "La Belle Epoque", for instance, is notable for putting all its weight on the verses, while the chorus is minimal; "Allt Har Sin Tid", on the other hand, is a succession of different melodic lines, with no verses or choruses but a constant shifting that, over more than five minutes, takes the listener on a genuine roller coaster of melodies, as well as tempos, voices and sounds.

The aforementioned "Allt Har Sin Tid" is undoubtedly the qualitative peak of the whole record, for the way it manages to move you, starting slow and four-square before building into an overwhelming surge. But every song on the record is consistently top-notch. Opener "Mirage" has everything needed to be one of those dancefloor hits capable of being irresistible not just for its immediacy, but also for the beauty of its melody, the distinctive expressiveness of the vocals and an effective yet never pandering sound. The other single, "Var Är Vi Nu", is as soft as it is substantial: it wraps the listener up and cradles them with tenderness and warmth, but also with firmness. "Godhet" is masterful in the way it moves from a verse that's equally soft but far more stripped-down, and at the same time full of life, to a chorus that's much more intense and overwhelming, with an important role played by the masterful vocal duet between Berg and Beatrice Elli of Elliphant. The closing "Den Andra Sidan" can't help but sweep you along, thanks above all to perfectly judged swells and dips in intensity that amplify the power of the song's emotional vibrations.

Despite Kent's sales and popularity remaining at their peak, this time there isn't a proper tour, and the band plays only a handful of shows. Two of them, however, are particularly prestigious, since the Swedes manage to put together an event called Kentfest, in Gothenburg and Stockholm, where they not only perform but also choose all the other acts on the bill.

The two faces of farewell: a minor-key record and a dazzling tour

In March 2016, Kent announce the upcoming release of their new album, specifying that it will be their last before splitting up. The four of them also reveal the dates of the farewell tour, which will take place in the final part of the year, with the last date in Stockholm in mid-December. There's a mix of shock and gratitude among fans, who of course rush to buy up copies of the record as well as tickets for the tour en masse. This writer chooses the Malmö date in mid-November.

Då som nu för alltid arrives on 20 May and, while not a poor record in itself, it certainly ranks among Kent's least successful. Fundamentally it sounds tamed and with few stimulating ideas, much like Vapen & Ammunition, but with less attractive songs, and it doesn't sink to the level of En plats i solen only because, in this case, the songs are better. It's a record that flows by easily, always pleasant to listen to and hum along to, but with no other notable merits beyond that.

Probably, the four of them, already knowing it was the last time they would work together, wanted above all to create something that conveyed a strong sense of serenity, and that's exactly what this record lets shine through.

The best, however, comes with the farewell tour. The dates are preceded by the release of the inevitable Best Of, featuring four new tracks that offer nothing different from what's on the last album, and then it all kicks off with what must undoubtedly be considered one of the finest displays of Kent's creativity, as they put together a memorable show to bid everyone farewell in the best possible way.

Visually and scenically, the setting is phantasmagoric, with the musicians' positioning on stage, lighting, video and screen design all combining to take the audience on a genuine journey through time and space. Musically, almost all the songs are revisited and specially rearranged for this tour, with an expanded lineup that even includes a three-part female choir. Despite the inevitable nostalgic element of the operation, Kent don't shy away from bold choices, both in the setlist and, above all, in the reinterpretation of the songs. An exhilarating show: 24 songs, nearly two and a half hours of emotion, a genuine triumph repeated every single night right up to the last one.

From that moment on, and to this day, no member of Kent is still fully committed to music. Martin Sköld had started a project with Johan Wohlert of Mew called Closure, which however was short-lived; he has recently released a couple of singles with a new band called Kapitalet. Jocke Berg has lent his voice to a few other artists' songs. Right after the split, some songs appeared by a band called Lädret, who chose to remain anonymous about their members, though persistent rumours claimed they were all of Kent with a new singer. The whole thing, however, lasted for just four singles.

Today, Jocke Berg can enjoy the life away from the spotlight that he chose for himself. He and the rest of Kent gave a great deal, and they also had the good sense to stop at the right moment. Of course, these days no reunion can be ruled out, but in any case Kent will always deserve to be regarded as an important name, not just commercially, but above all in terms of quality.

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