Sky High : Freezin' Hot
(Mega - 1985)
Category : overlooked

I have heard two albums so far of this Swedish Blues trio. The first one I heard was 'Freezin' Hot', their third album, and it more or less blew me away. The second one was their most succesful album so far, called 'Humanizer' (released in 1987), but in my opinion, only one track ('Don't move') from that album is in the same league as the 'Freezin' Hot' material. So let's not talk about their most commercially succesful album, but of this excellent slab of vinyl that preceded it.

When I first heard 'Freezin' Hot' I was immediately charmed by their catchy Pop-injected Blues Rock. On a few songs Sky High sound like ZZ Top, as they have the same accessible approach to the Blues Rock genre as ZZ Top during their most popular period. The influence is most obvious in the Jerry Beach / Albert King cover 'I'll play the Blues for you' and on 'I ain't beggin''. If someone would've slipped any of these songs onto a 1983-1990 era ZZ Top album, no one would've notived the difference, were it not for the sharper sounding vocals. Overall the music on 'Freezin' Hot' doesn't sound synthetic though, and it may therefore even please the hardcore Blues fans. Especially because guitarist Clas Yngström also happens to be a master on his instrument, and he produces one terrific Blues solo after another.

The album's not just filled with catchy Blues Rockers (the outstanding 'I ain't Beggin'' for example), but there's also some Boogie ('I want you', 'You Got me Hooked'), some slow Blues ('Evil Eye') and a couple of more straight ahead poppy Rock songs (such as the downright excellent songs 'Don't move' and 'Back to the Woods'). All this variety makes for an entertaining listen and gives the album a wide appeal. I would therefore recommend it not only to Blues Rock and Hard Rock fans, but even to mainstream Rock fans.

Website: http://www.skyhighblues.com