Kerrs Pink - A Journey on the Inside (1993)
A Journey on the Inside is a mediocre and ultimately unnecessary album from this reunited early 80s Scandinavian neo-progressive group. This is extremely contrived and packed with faked sentimentality within an apparently "inspirational" framework. The poor vocalist and bad lyrics don't help the already amateurish, unoriginal and frankly tedious compositions. Basically the album represents everything critics hate about progressive rock, not that that matters in and of itself, but it's only at times like these that an avowed prog fan like myself can understand the grievances that outsiders might have towards our beloved genre. A Journey on the Inside is an epic concept that is pretty lame from the get-go, a vibe I got simply from reading the gag-inducing "story" in the liner notes. The story has something to do with some guy who finds some girl and they have some sort of adventure and so on and so forth, at the end of which he discovers something about himself. Blech. The typos and grammatical errors didn't help matters. For the most part, that sort of vibe extends to the lyrics and vocals of the album, making them unintentionally self-parodying.Musically the album is basically a neo-progressive take on Camel's music, with some obvious Genesis influences thrown in as well. Since the vocalist sounds like he's simply reading the lyric sheet with a bad accent for the most of the album, the vocal portions of the album are basically intolerable. Musically, there is some competent playing, such as on "The Sorcerer," which briefly scales the heights of prime Camel. Other parts that really caught my ear were some simplistic melodies that I felt like I had heard somewhere before. There are good moments scattered throughout the album, and the great production probably raises the level up a notch. Overall though I probably will never listen to this album again; there's nothing here that others haven't done better.
Greg Northrup [February 2001]
Kerrs Pink - "A Journey On The Inside" (Musea FGBG 4085.AR, 1994, CD
Take equal parts of progressive rock in the vein of Pink Floyd and Camel, and the traditional folk music of Scandinavia, and you have the music of Kerrs Pink. With this, their third album, their sound has matured considerably into a very cohesive fusion of these styles, much as the Irish band Horslips did on their classic Book of Invasions. With Journey on the Inside, Kerrs Pink has combined precisely the right amounts of each with an overall accessibility and determination that all work together to make this one truly powerful release. Functionally, the music is rock at the surface, but folk at the core, which surfaces in the music in varying degrees throughout this 70+ minute concept epic, the story of a young man who has great potential but has achieved little in life. With the help of "Magic Mary", who lulls our hero into a trance, he goes on a journey confronting the elements of his inner self that prevent him from success, all represented here as people in a fictitious village. The lyrics are sung in English by keyboardist Per Oyvind Nordberg and guest female vocalist Heidi Drengsrud Jahren (as Magic Mary), yet a full half of the tracks here are instrumentals. The bulk of the material was written by Nordberg and longtime guitarist/flautist Harald Lytomt, with the occasional track by bassist Jostein Hansen. There is plenty here to be impressed with, tight playing, beautiful solos, magical moody segues, and powerful melodies. I'm certain that most progressive music enthusiasts will find this to be an enjoyable journey.
(Originally published in Exposé #3, p.12, Edited for Gnosis 3/24/01)