Thanks to the original label Adrian Recordings and the label ORD we can now present, for the first time ever, The Bear Quartet's last album Monty Python on vinyl. A true classic!
Artist: The Bear Quartet
Title: Monty Python
Release date: June 5
Label: Adrian Recordings & ORD
First time on vinyl. Finally, one of Sweden’s most classic albums gets a vinyl release — the legendary Swedish band The Bear Quartet’s final album, “Monty Python”. Created in a creative rush and conceived as a sibling album to the prior release “89”, “Monty Python” became the band’s swan song in 2010.
"Monty Python" by The Bear Quartet is a strange and exhilarating artifact from a band that built its reputation on restless reinvention. Released during a period when the Swedish group was pushing beyond indie rock’s familiar boundaries, the record plays like a collage of jagged pop instincts, lo-fi textures, and wry humor. Musically, the album embodies that restless spirit. On one hand, it contains many of the elements that defined the band’s career; on the other, it sounds unlike anything they had recorded before. By the end of the ’90s they had largely moved past conventional pop, no longer interested in writing another sentimental classic like “Mom and Dad” or “It Only Takes a Flashlight to Create a Monster.” Instead, "Monty Python" pushes forward — restless, strange, and unmistakably their own. It’s beyond doubt that The Bear Quartet are among Sweden’s most influential bands, and when it comes to lyrics, Matti Alkberg and Peter Nuottaniemi remain second to none.
"Monty Python" also captures the band’s fascination with fragmentation. Rather than building straightforward anthems, the group assembles moods, textures, and fragments of melody into songs that reward close listening. There is humor here, but it is dry and slightly melancholic, echoing the album’s sense of creative freedom. In that way, Monty Python stands as both a playful detour and a statement of artistic intent, revealing a band unafraid to dismantle its own sound in search of something stranger, sharper, and unexpectedly beautiful.
Even today, the album feels refreshingly unpredictable. Listeners encounter moments of fragile pop beside bursts of distortion, creating a tension that keeps the record alive from start to finish. "Monty Python" is also considered by the band members to be one of their proudest achievements.
