With influences such as Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Genesis and Neil Young, Norwegian singer/ songwriter Thom Hell demands attention. Thom (real name Thomas Helland, you didn’t think he was really called Hell, did you?) has produced many EPs and albums, and the third album, ‘God If I Saw Her Now’ (2008), reached the Top Five of the Norwegian album chart and earned him two Norwegian Grammy awards (Best Male Artist and Best Pop Composer) while his single ‘My Heart Is Longing for a Soul’ garnered a nomination for Best Music Video. With ‘All Good Things’ (2010) he received another Norwegian Grammy award for Best Male Artist.
Later albums in 2014 and 2015 cultivated Hell’s love for 1970s progressive music while his second- last one, in 2017, ‘Happy Rabbit’, attracted critical praise in the UK, so he comes with an impressive pedigree.
The song ‘Maybe I’ll see you again’ is the first single from his tenth album, scheduled to be released in early 2021.
I feel like I should be more familiar with Thom Hell than I am but what prompted me to check him out is that I know he’s working with guitarist Ronny Yttrehus, who I am familiar with, from Josefin Winther’s Band (which was recently reviewed) and Sol Heilo’s (ex-Katzenjammer), and who is a top-notch musician.
Well, for all that big build-up there’s no hint at all of prog in here, it’s quite a mainstream piano ballad that you might imagine, say, Tom Odell singing (or if you want to revert to the prog era, Gilbert O’Sullivan), while the guitar breaks are restrained and appropriate. He describes it as “a little tribute to the past”. In fact, checking through some of his back catalogue on Spotify most of his material seems to fall into that category.
Nice song though and of course so apt for release at the present moment, especially as he had to cancel a pile of shows in March and April.
Thom seems to be something of a joker, too, with the artwork looking like Peter Sellers, possibly in his Inspector Clouseau role, with a pigeon on his shoulder.