I’m rarely stuck for words but after a couple of hearings I’m still not sure quite what to make of ‘The Clown’, which is the fifth single from Copenhagen’s Albert Hertz, features collaboration with New York-born, Danish/Iranian artist Soho Rezanejad and which is released in anticipation of Albert Hertz’s debut album, scheduled for the autumn of 2026, which is just around the corner now.
Both artists are noted for collaborative efforts and have worked with a multitude of other artists.
The single is billed as “a left-field slowcore ballad about the strange performance of love, grief and self-deception” and is itself couched as a strange performance in the shape of an archetypal jester who “performs happiness” in order to outrun longing for another, only to find themselves pulled back into it. (The pronoun isn’t mine, I’ve always assumed court jesters were men but hey, this is the 21st century!)
You can’t laugh your way out of a personal crisis, to put it another way. But there’s nothing to stop you trying and Albert’s jester character attempts to ‘live’ happiness while quietly coming apart at the seams.
But there is a more positive message too, one that love never dies, no matter how many times the heart is fractured. “When love is gone, where does it go?” demanded Win Butler on Arcade Fire’s ‘Afterlife’. Albert perceives a permanence that Win never dreamt of in his philosophy.
There’s a medieval, almost Shakespearean, feel to the song with evocative lines like “how to love what breaks me bare” and “Paint these smiles on every mask/Split myself in half to ask” dotted throughout it. It could be Hamlet speaking.
Musically, what sounds like a bass guitar but could be anything, joins forces with bongos of all things and multi-tracked vocals to contrast and conflict with Albert’s piercing falsetto to create a schizophrenic melody redolent with angst, confusion and craving.
10cc’s I’m not in love’, which had a similar construction, is answered by Albert’s “I am and always will be”
It’s all a bit too arty for the mainstream but some folk thought that about 10cc’s song and it spent 13 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, including two weeks at number one and ‘The Clown’ will push the right buttons amongst the avant garde in Copenhagen and beyond for sure.
Albert is one of several Nordic artists pursuing a clown theme right now. Another is Norway’s Tulle and her sympathies are of a similar nature. Perhaps collectively they might bring the circus to town.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
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Bandcamp: https://alberthertz.bandcamp.com/
