When
Bok med Blanka Sidor was released in 1995 it was almost seen as a comeback album. It had been three years since
LeMarc's last album and this time producer
Tony Thorén had created a more modern sound, with less acoustic guitars and more beats.
LeMarc had also been styled, shaved his head, and stopped wearing silly hats. Or the hat he wore was at least a lot less silly than the one seen on the cover of
Det Finns Inget Bättre. But beyond that, almost all of the ingredients of
Bok med Blanka Sidor are found already on the previous album, often in better versions.
LeMarc's strongest side is storytelling and his tragic tales about love that is not so much doomed as pragmatic can be masterly. But he is always balancing between the sincere and the pathetic, often overstepping the line, and when he tries to employ a more metaphoric language the result is seldom convincing. Take "Fruset Vatten," for example, with precious little lines like: "Frozen lilies in a Chinese box." And when his most romantic side makes itself heard, as in "Tess," the result can be almost embarrassing. But if the album can be seen as a modernized version of
Det Finns Inget Bättre, it did a lot to bring a new audience to
LeMarc and get him in tune with the critics. ~ Lars Lovén