EERA is the Berlin-based Norwegian singer/songwriter Anna Lena Kirsten Bruland who will release her third album, ‘I’ll stop when I’m done’, on 26th September (that’s my birthday Anna, so I’ll look forward to receiving it through the post) and who teases it with this single, ‘Forget Her.’
EERA has paid us a visit once before, right back in early October 2021, just prior to the release of her second album, which makes her one of the first people we ever reviewed.
It was clear from the single we reviewed from that album, ‘Ladder‘, that she’s a deep thinker. It concerned opportunity, seizing it, and trying to make someone else see that they have a lot to be grateful for, which they may not realise themselves.
This time, with ‘Forget Her’, she analyses her own previous persona, one that found life difficult and tiring, and attempts to distance herself from it; indeed to forget it ever existed.
This state of mind is represented in the song by an unforgiving repeated refrain of “forget about her, forget about her”, ad nauseam, along with “Don’t let her win”. “Like an emotional exorcism”, she notes, adding that she used to suffer from anxiety before she learned how to “remove” herself from “her” although “she” still remains part of her and has to be kept at bay.
Is this sounding like a split personality?
That would be too brutal. But both the song and the video do suggest a troubled mind as does that refrain, the monotonous beat, repetitive melody and references to “grinding teeth” and being “unable to eat”.
There are also some odd lines about a “bathroom floor” and “three hours or more” which one might interpret as a reference to a suicide attempt.
It isn’t something you are going to dance to but it will make you think because at one time or another many people are going to abhor their alter ego and have to choose what personality they want to be – and even more so in this day and age, and it is going to be hard.
EERA says she was able to put that alter ego behind her although “She” will “always be a part of me.”
And the video cleverly adds emphasis to the dilemma by revealing the different phases she goes through on a typical day; happy and chatty in company but quickly reverting to type out of it.
It puts me in mind (I’ve mentioned this before) of a series of anti-suicide television adverts that have been doing the rounds here for many months now under the title of SOS – Silence of Suicide and which feature actors and actresses displaying these very same characteristics.
All in all song and video are intelligently put together and convey a ‘face up to your fears’ message demonstrably.
To celebrate the release of the new album EERA will play two full band shows, in Berlin and London.
LIVE:
14 October – The Lexington, London
16 October – Lark, Berlin
Find her on:
Website: https://www.eera.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eeramusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eera_official/
