Josefin Winther (Norway) – Ultimately (single/future album track)

I was shocked to discover how long it has been since Josefin Winther, once a mainstay of NMC, last appeared here; exactly three years since her English language album ‘If I were you’.

I’ll take a moment to repeat the way in which I concluded that review:

“I’ll cut to the chase. Every time I hear Josefin Winther she gets better and better. While keeping to a theme throughout she also manages to offer up loads of variety on this album. Her song writing skills are as good as it gets and don’t forget that lyrically she’s doing this is in a language that isn’t her native one. And her vocal ability gets you in the feels, every time.”

In fact I’ll go further than that and insist that she is one of the top songwriters in Norway and that if she was living in a bigger country, let’s say the UK or USA, she would proportionately be a bigger star than she is today. And I’m making allowances for the fact that quite a few other Norwegian female ‘top writers’ have adorned these pages in recent months.

I do believe she’s been out of the frame a little since then owing to some sort of academic work she has been doing, apart from releasing two EPs and a full album in Norwegian and her basketball appearances. Quite a polymath.

Now she’s back big time, celebrating 20 years in the business, with no less than three albums to be released in a month’s time; a band album, ‘Thoughts of you’ – from which this single is taken – a ‘hymn album’, ‘Lysets grace’, recorded in a Tøyen (Oslo) church and a greatest hits compilation.

The majority of Josefin’s songs are ballads but this one, ‘Ultimately’, is, in her own words “cheeky and groovy”, a little more up-tempo than usual, catchy and tuneful. It’s got a Gilbert O’Sullivan feel to it for those that can remember the 1970s

And it is and played out by an exquisite little guitar solo, courtesy I believe of Ronny Yttrehus, one of those unsung heroes of the scene in Norway who works with numerous bands.

I notice also that Jo Berger Myhre provided the bass parts. I’ve seen him playing with the Eberson jazz-rock fusion band very competently, while behind the mixing desk is Jonas Kroon, who is the main behind many Norwegian recordings in NMC.

I remember George Best once describing Manchester as a ‘village’ where everyone seemed to know, or at least to know about, everyone else. Musically speaking, I reckon the whole of Norway is one.

A song about differences and ultimate choices that have to be made about relationships, the “city lights combined with the city fights” having proven to be an obstacle too far. She prefers to get strong apart rather than weak together.

It’s a brilliant all round pop-rock song, which once again displays the variety in her creations.

(Continues after the Spotify link).

A Norwegian tour starts in April, see social pages for details.

Find her on:

Website: https://www.josefinwinther.com/