The REAL Big Reunion this year refers to the return of Army of Lovers. Comebacks are so in right now. But at the high end, haute couture level of the spectrum, you’ve got these guys doing it all in a very different and inimitable fashion. You won’t be seeing another band stage a comeback quite like Army of Lovers have.
There’s been the big Melodifestivalen performance – the most memorable of this year’s contest. Intentionally, it was just as ridiculous as it was amazing. As much WTF as it was OMG (and a fair amount of LOL too). Then there was the ceremonious sacking of La Camilla, with her being replaced with Dominika. When other bands switch members, it’s quickly addressed and even more speedily glossed over in an attempt to get everyone to just move on and continue as though nothing has happened. Not Army of Lovers. Long after the public letter to La Camilla, there are still some very harsh and personal statements and tweets flying around, with accusations of alcoholism and unprofessionalism. And all being played out in the press too of course – the peak of the coverage (so far) being after Alexander Bard conducted a knifing ceremony of a blow-up doll symbolising La Camilla, live on stage at one of their gigs. Only Army of Lovers, right? As much as she’d like to, you can’t quite imagine Heavenli from The Honeyz carrying out a similar incident on the G-A-Y stage, with a sex doll that resembles Naima, can you?
But all of this has been leading up to what the fans really want. Some new music. And now, it’s time for us to get it.
Next week sees the release of a new album from them, ‘Big Battle of Egos’. For the most part, it’s a Greatest Hits collection, but it also contains four new songs that they’ve recorded since the reunion. One of those is ‘Rockin The Ride’ that we all got to witness being slaughtered and paraded around on the Melodifestivalen stage last month. And then there’s also three new tracks, which Army of Lovers are allowing Scandipop readers to preview exclusively, ahead of the album’s release next week.
The three new tracks each have a strong connection to Alexander Bard’s work outside of Army of Lovers. ‘Signed On My Tattoo’ features his current band Gravitonas (and is the next single), ‘Crashing Down’ is an AoL version of of ‘Love Comes Crashing Down’ by Bard’s previous band BWO, and ‘Tragedy’ is an AoL cover of the song that he wrote for Malena Ernman’s ‘La Voix Du Nord’ album (and which they’ve SOMEHOW managed to make sound even more ridiculous slash amazing!).
And here are previews of all three (we’ve purposely included the most ludicrous 60 seconds of ‘Tragedy’ – the final minute);
Signed On My Tattoo (featuring Gravitonas)
[audio:https://www.scandipop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Signed-On-My-Tattoo-preview.mp3|titles=Signed On My Tattoo preview]Crashing Down
[audio:https://www.scandipop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Crashing-Down-preview.mp3|titles=Crashing Down preview]Tragedy
[audio:https://www.scandipop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Tragedy-preview.mp3|titles=Tragedy preview]The album is released in Sweden next Wednesday, April 27th. However, if you live outside of Sweden, you can pre-order the album on CD from our online store right now.
