Stage Dolls
Stripped

A few days ago, while wandering on YouTube with my smart TV, I stumbled upon a concert by this Norwegian trio— a recent event as the musicians looked quite gray, although in good shape. The fascination came from the fact they were playing in their own country, in the "evening" (with the sun) by a fjord not far from the North Cape! With the mountain peaks around still streaked with snow in the middle of summer, and the people present more or less wrapped up in windbreakers. The pleasant situation now compels me to dig up their best album, released in 1991 as the fourth in a discography that so far has extended to the eighth record.

We are in the presence of an exemplary product of melodic hard rock, particularly radiant on the first side; of the minimalist genre... that is, few things (a riff, a chorus, a bass line...) but all extremely focused, functional, accessible, and driving. That type of magic and correctness achieved by musical entities, all different from each other but united by this "thematic sobriety," such as Dire Straits, AC-DC, J.J. Cale, Police...

Here we are in a more "romantic" context (especially in the lyrics, simply amorous), but the class and taste in proposing yet another convincing version of accessible Anglo-American rock ’n’ roll are abundantly felt in these somewhat hard songs, a bit pop, a splash of blues, in which passion and expertise shine through. The leader (composer, singer, guitarist) Torstein Flackne knows his stuff; he could pose much more with solos and long-windedness but prefers to create meticulously melodic songs, sing them with a voice that is not very powerful but intense, play them excellently with a great touch on the six strings.

From a technical standpoint, this work turns out to be a true tutorial on the virtues of the Rockman guitar processor, an analog amplifier/effect devised by the ingenious Tom Scholz (leader of Boston) in the eighties. In particular, its patented "Clean1" sound, a matter of complex compression circuits, pushed equalization, phase modulation (chorus), capable of generating a very clear and rich sound, able to "pierce" the mix like no other. The record is permeated from top to bottom with these clean yet elaborately urgent guitar sounds, with that characteristic incredible "cut" in the mid-tones and the peculiar, smooth yet dynamic support action of the compressor.

The most successful songs are the opening "Stand by You", the following "Life in America", the semi-ballads "Love Don’t Bother Me" and "Sorry (Is All I Can Say)", the latter a bit the symbol of the group, thanks to its plaintive, indelible melody. Good Flakne with the Viking name meaning Thunder Stone is one of the many musicians, children of a lesser god, whom I love to hold in high regard in my personal temple of good music: too good.