Fred Lee & The Restless - Sleepwalking in Daylight (2021) Hi-Res

Fredrik Lindkvist, mostly known as the former singer and frontman of Swedish hardcore band Totalt Jävla Mörker, has signed to Lövely records. Under the artist name Fred Lee & The Restless, he will release his solo debut album Sleepwalking in Daylight in June 2021. “Fred” has already released three singles in the lead-up to his debut album, each very different – and the album itself continues this wacky approach! Fredrik can usually be seen screaming his lungs out in various hardcore and punk constellations – Totalt Jävla Mörker being the most famous one. This project, however, is something completely different. Traditional storytelling, and traditional story-telling, bittersweet vocal melodies, clean guitar licks, all performed with the lyricism and subversiveness of punk, combine to give a colourful and novel take on folk-rock!

His approach to songwriting is rooted in the darker spectrum of underground culture, yet expressed with colorful and heartwarming ambiance. The result is a unique take on folk-rock, defined by captivating lyrics and distinct melodies. Capturing the feeling of a live performance, Sleepwalking in Daylight was recorded in two days, after only four rehearsal sessions together with Fredrik’s studio backup band. “If the recording felt right, we simply kept it” Fredrik comments.

For me, the album recalls the hey-day of New Model Army, with a touch of the Long Riders, in that each song tells a story, each song has a catchy riff / chord progression and good melody – it’s what you might call contemporary folk-rock, as sometimes espoused by The Clash, Billy Bragg – and by some favourites of mine, Stevie Jones and The Wildfires (reviewed in the VT predecessor’s “CRS Rock Society” hard-copy pages a couple of years ago).

Sleepwalking in Daylight contains 10 tracks. While the sound is heavily influenced by folk-rock, there’s something undoubtedly subversive in Fredrik’s expressions. His background in the punk movement is clearly demonstrated on tracks like “Capitalist Market”, “These Times Are so Fucking Dark”, and on the album opener “Who Do You Want to Be”, which immediately sets the mood of the album with the opening line “Dressed up to the first of May march….”. Other songs are whimsical by comparison, gentle melodies, finger-pickin’ good! The point being they’re all nicely composed, with rattling pace, solid production and performance from the rest of the band, simply enjoyable. Devil’s Chokehold encapsulates this, traditional verse/chorus/verse/bridges/verse/chorus and thoroughly listenable.