I was really taken with Elise Sløgedal when we took a listen to ‘Little Things’, a single and track from this newly released 10-track album, ‘Familiar Thoughts’, only last month.
The album is out now and I searched through it for a suitable sample track, overlooking the likes of ‘Not Fine’ – a Fiona Apple song title if I ever heard one – and ‘Where does it end?’ – one that she might have addressed to Donald on behalf of the world.
Her energy and innovation, both evident on that single, were what I was searching for. They are here too, on all the tracks, but having to isolate one, the ultimate track – ‘And I’m back again’ – stood out.
It’s an instrument-free zone, a cacophony of spoken word and a cappella multi-tracked singing that suggests all sorts of cutting edge artists like Laurie Andersen and Holly Herndon.
I can’t say for sure what it’s about, where she’s been and what brought her back again but my thoughts were directed towards the Dane Lydmor, her 2021 album ‘Capacity’, the final track ‘Hotel Ads’ and the final line in it, “And I guess…the circus is back in town.”
What Jenny Rossander was referring to there was her mental recovery from a breakdown during the Covid pandemic when a relationship suddenly ended and her world fell apart and it crossed my mind that Elise might have been referencing a similar tipping point.
Track titles like ‘Still sobbing’, ‘Alienated’, ‘Leave him behind’, ‘Not Fine’, Please don’t’ and ‘Where does it end?’ do add a little weight to that theory perhaps.
It’s the fiery determination with which she insists “And I’m back again” that led me up that path especially, but even if I’m way out of line I don’t think the comparison with the erudite Ms Rossander, nor with her Norwegian compatriot Tulle, who is also working at the cutting edge of imaginative indie-pop, will do her any harm at all.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
The album was co-written with Øystein Folkedal and involved several musicians we’ve featured including Tuva Halse while it was mixed by Pom Poko’s Martin Miguel Tonne.
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