SLEEPING IN TRAFFIC - PART TWO

I've always thought of Beardfish as a primarily retro band, creating its quirky yet accessible prog from popular, rather than obscure, ingredients of the 70s. Of their albums, Sleeping in Traffic has the most 70s vibe to me. Two albums released a year apart, but basically a double concept CD, it has surprisingly little filler for a modern-era double album, with the second part being even better in that regard. Most songs are multi-part, and each part has a memorable foundation to it, be it hard-rocking boogie, blues, soul, funk, fusion, a bass/keyboard dominating melody, an intricate guitar duet, whiny alternative rock or even accordion and tango. The most-talked about song is naturally the 35-minute eponymous epic. It is surprisingly consistent for such a long song, but has a curious structure - after a scorching deep bass-Eastern-metal-tango book-end the song is very slow for the first 15 minutes, and for the next ten it is basically a non-stop romp, before returning to the original unsettling melody. In short, if you can afford to have only one Beardfish disk, all are good, but if you must, get Sleeping in Traffic part 2. Disregard the frontman Rikard Sjoblom saying that its more difficult to get into. Just give it a few spins, and it will fall into place.