Eberson (Norway) – Forgetful (single/cover)

I’m an avid fan of the TV comedy series Benidorm (like every night), about the adventures of a motley crew of ‘Brits’ on their annual holiday in Europe’s biggest resort town at the 3-Star Solana Hotel and which is on a permanent loop on a retro TV station here.

Every night they get themselves into an unholy mess, often involving a run-in with the Law; a walking, talking advert for everything that is wrong with UK plc.

But sometimes there is pathos and tenderness. In one recent episode the loud mouthed northerner Mick Garvey forgot his 10^th wedding anniversary prompting his wife Janice and her family to disown him and the situation could only be rectified by Mick paying the resident crooner in the hotel’s nightclub to sing a smoochy song for her, after which they kissed and made up.

That sort of thing happens thousands of times every day and is indirectly the subject of a rare acoustic single, a cover, from the Oslo-based father and daughter duo Eberson.

Eberson has appeared in NMC before, but never like this. It is a dynamic jazz-rock fusion band. I’ve seen them live and they almost rocked down the walls of Victoria, Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo.

Marte Eberson is no stranger here either, her form of intelligent, questioning electronic alt-pop having earned her our moniker of ‘Marte Pop’.

But I have to say I have never heard anything quite like this from Eberson previously. Cover or not, it’s new ground.

‘Forgetful’ is a song about things that slip in the night. Like Mick’s failure to remember the wedding anniversary. When love becomes absent-mindedness and then absence.

When communication is reduced to texts, and then fewer texts, and then nothing.

“Lately/You’ve been so forgetful/A kind of a stop and go forgetfulness/That bothers me”

There’s something about these texts, Marte observes, that say it all but without yelling. It’s a song for all those who have known being forgotten, and still hoped to be remembered.

And as I’ve often observed, Oslo’s female flaneur-in-chief is often doing her observing in the first person. She’s been there, done it and got the T-shirt, which I’m certain is why the song appealed to her.

There’s even a hint of threat in the very last line, “And Forgetful won’t be able to forget…” Kudos to Janice, sorry Marte, for sticking to her guns.

It could even be a Marte song, but for Pop’s tasteful guitar accompaniment instead of the usual keys.

It’s one for late at night, the lights lowered, the glass of wine empty, the last cigarette a stub and not a sign of life on the phone.

https://open.spotify.com/track/76hVfYd4yi9ws0HRf0SrHH?si=a2a31fc7b1fc4083

‘Forgetful’ is the first teaser from a forthcoming album of the same name to be released in November, a compilation of some of their favorite songs from The Great American Songbook – timeless jazz ballads they grew up with and carried with them throughout their lives.

The original ‘Forgetful’ is by Chet Baker, written and recorded in 1957 for the album ‘Embraceable You’, which was not released until 1995. The song was though also released in 1959 on the album ‘Chet Baker with Fifty Italian Strings’.

With all due respect to Chet, who often seems to crop up on lists of favourite songwriters for Norwegian artists, his version doesn’t match Eberson’s in the Embraceable Stakes.

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