Tid för tystnad


Tid för tystnad – Marie Fredrikssons ballader is a compilation album by Swedish singer-songwriter Marie Fredriksson, released on 28 November 2007 by Capitol Records in conjunction with Fredriksson's own independent record label Mary Jane/Amelia Music. It was compiled by Fredriksson alongside her husband Mikael Bolyos and former EMI executive Kjell Andersson, and consists of personal favourites among her previously recorded ballads, along with new songs "Ordet är farväl" and "Ett bord i solen". Both of these tracks were issued as airplay-only promotional singles in Sweden. The latter is a Swedish version of "A Table in the Sun", a song from her 2004 English album The Change.
The compilation received generally positive reviews from Swedish publications, and charted moderately in her home country upon release. In July 2008, Tid för tystnad was released in Argentina, and peaked within the top twenty of the Argentine Albums Chart.

Development and release

The album was compiled by Fredriksson, her husband Mikael Bolyos, and Kjell Andersson, the former EMI executive who proposed in 1985 that Fredriksson collaborate with Per Gessle, with whom she would form Roxette the following year. Tid för tystnad consists of personal favourites among her previously recorded ballads, along with two newly recorded songs: "Ordet är farväl" and "Ett bord i solen", both of which were issued as airplay-only promotional singles in Sweden. "Ordet är farväl" was released on 18 November 2007; it had been composed several years earlier by Bolyos and Swedish pop singer Py Bäckman, whom Fredriksson described as a "fantastic songwriter". "Ett bord i solen" followed on 7 February 2008; it is a Swedish language version of "A Table in the Sun", a track originally from Fredriksson's 2004 English album The Change.

Critical reception

The compilation received generally positive reviews from Swedish publications upon release. Karin Bengtsson of Borås Tidning described "Sparvöga" as one of the most beautiful songs of all time, and said that it "still makes me a little teary-eyed, like it did back when it was originally released in the late 80's." Despite this, she called the "middle portion" of the album "a little too quiet, even for a ballad album." Expressen referred to Fredriksson as "Sweden's uncrowned ballad queen, at least in the 80's and 90's where the majority of these songs are from", and described the record as "finely tuned, emotional and beautiful". Helsingborgs Dagblad said: "She has some nice ballads on her conscience, Marie Fredriksson, but not as many as 19. Therefore, this collection becomes an uneven story." Nevertheless, they summarised by writing: "But 'Sparvöga' still soars even now, and it has fitting company in 'Den sjunde vågen'. a beautifully sweet experience, in a way." A writer for Nya Wermlands-Tidningen claimed that several songs on the compilation had lost their appeal due to being overplayed "on all radio station playlists since the day they were released. This provokes an instant psychological response: these songs are either dear old acquaintances or tedious repetitions of something you hoped to forget, at least for a short while. I belong to the latter category, and am filled with a sense of after listening to just a few moments of each song."

Commercial performance

The record performed moderately well in her native country, spending five weeks on the Swedish Albums Chart and peaking at number 32 on its third week of release. Tid för tystnad was released in Argentina in July 2008, making it the first Fredriksson or Gessle solo album ever printed and released in South America, and also the first of Fredriksson's Swedish-language albums to be released outside of Sweden since I en tid som vår was issued in Japan in 1997. It peaked at number 16 on CAPIF's weekly albums chart.

Track listing

Credits

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Tid för tystnad – Marie Fredrikssons ballader.

Release history