City pop classic

Express by Anders Glenmark

As a producer the now 71 year old Anders Glenmark pretty much defined the sound of mainstream Swedish pop from the late 1980s to the mid 90s.

A close ally to ABBA and a successful singer-songwriter in his own right since 1972. Sometimes he tried his hands on singing in English, hoping to expand his fan base to an international level.

In Sweden, Glenmark’s first foray into this, ”Express” from 1977, is surely his most forgotten album. In Japan, on the other hand, its yachty mellow disco sound with strong hints of generic 70s Eurovision entries, has lead to numerous re-issues.

In Tokyo record stores you will probably find it filed in close appromixity to their ”City Pop” aisle.

”City Pop”, as most of you hopefully now know, was a very japanese phenomena, reigning supreme as the smooth soundtrack to the economic boom and birth of the yuppie era, only quite recently re-discovered all across the globe by new generations of soul- and disco afficianados.

Andres Lokko