Motsättningar (RKOB,
1979)
as Circle O Zero on Uma N.E
Swedish vocals
International relevance:
**
After
fighting mental issues, Robert Broberg invented a new persona. Perhaps
to escape himself, or perhaps to become himself. He chose Zero as his
new moniker, but the full unwieldy artist name on
”Motsättningar” is "Robert Broberg presenterar (= ”presents”)
Circle O Zero on Uma N.E", and the album contains songs written
between 1974 and 1979, including one translation of a track from
”
Tolv sånger på amerikanska”. ”Would You Like to Be My Object
for Tonite?”, here entitled ”Vill du vara mitt sexualobjekt
ikväll?”
Possibly due to the timespan of the
songs and maybe because some of them are recorded live, the album is
all over the map. There's funk in ”Sprucken i tusen bitar” and
”Farbror Anders funk”, blues in ”Du har Pinochet i
garderoben!”, a bit of Little Feat in ”Doktor Jekyll och Mister
Hyde”, circus music in ”Cirkuslåten/Två knappar längst ner!”,
an a capella waltz named ”Jag tar ofta på mig min kofta” etc.
The best track however is the very beautiful and melancholy ”Jag
ska inte ligga lik” – actually one of his best ever songs.
The diversity of the music is most
likely a reflection – conscious or not – of Broberg's fragmented
mind at the time. The album title is certainly telling enough: a
possible translation of ”Motsättningar” would be 'conflicts'.
So, not a consistent album but a revealing one.
Kvinna eller man
(Silence, 1981)
as Zero
Swedish vocals, English
vocals
International relevance:
*
After a decade of self-released albums,
Robert Broberg/Zero joined the Silence roster in 1980. Perhaps the
proper record deal helped him get a hit with ”Vatten – sta'n är
full av vatten”, for a while overplayed by Swedish Radio. The track
is relatively representative of the album as whole; ”Kvinna eller
man” is Broberg's most accessible album since the 60's. The most
interesting tracks are the final two, the English language ”Don't
Lean Out of Your Head”, like many of the album's tracks dealing
with self-image and identity, and ”Tom Top” which is by far the
weirdest song here, pointing towards Broberg's next effort ”Am I
Your New Toy”. ”Tom Top” became a novelty hit when released as
the album's pilot single in 1980. 1980 also saw the release of the fine
Paul McCartney inspired non-album single ”Nothing's Gonna Stop Me
Now”.
Am I Your New Toy
(Silence, 1982)
as Zero
English vocals
International relevance:
***
One of Broberg's quirkiest albums, and
given his earlier ones that says a lot. Broberg plays all instruments
himself, using a drum machine for rhythm keeping. A certain Devo
influence can be traced on tracks like ”You Make It Happen” and
”Your Clothes Talk”, but don't forget to add Brian Wilson's most
bizarre Beach Boys moments and sprinkle a bit of Paul McCartney's
1980 album ”McCartney II” on top.
But the crucial element is of course
Broberg himself. This album doesn't sound like anything else, at
least nothing made by a well-known artist. It's as if he took pieces
of familiar music, put them in a telepod from the 50's horror movie
”The Fly”, teleported everything to the other telepod. looked at
the curious product of his experiment and then released it on record. Of course the album soon entered obscurity, and
few casual listeners probably know it even exists.
After this album, Robert Broberg
propelled back into full-scale stardom with sell-out shows and the love of
the people. But once he did, he lost a fair bit of the peculiar
grandeur of his extended 'forgotten' decade.