Chihuahua0 - Ten Love Songs - Album Review [tekst, tłumaczenie i interpretacja piosenki]

Ten Love Songs is a simplistic title for Susanne Sundfør's ambitious new album. She weaves synth and baroque pop music into a thematic arc filled with aggression, anguish, and an awfully long orchestral interlude that preludes more aggressive anguish.

In my opinion, it is 2015's first stellar pop record, and is one more sign that Scandinavia's taking over the world. (Wake up, people!) After a week, I find that Ten Love Songs's a rarity where I can play it back-to-back and not feel compelled to skip around. This will hold me off until Florence + the Machine comes out with their third album.

From the church lamentation "Darlings", to the EDM ballad "Kamikaze", to the experimental "Insects", Susanne guides you through the soundscape. Her soprano glides through the sequencing. The harsh "Accelerate" transitions into lead single "Fade Away" that make the latter feel day-one new.

When I first listened to "Fade Away", its poppiness felt jarring compared to her quieter album The Silicone Veil. But after a few listens, I revelled in the dissonance. Its warbling electronics sound happy, but she sings about a dissolving relationship, and the bridge dips into a cave before returning the surface. The line "this is the kind of love that never goes out of style" establishes the conflict that rules the concept.

Lyrics aren't the project's highlights, but once in awhile, Susanne fishes words from the fjords. In "Delirious", which also shifts through musical keys, she jabs at her more powerful lover with "You say that I'm delirious / But I'm not the one holding the gun."

Even the less essential tracks are endearing. Susanne croons through the sublime nightcall "Slowly", and "Silencer" sounds like a better version of Alt-J's second album.

The riskiest moment is "Memorials", a ten-minute-long centerpiece that's mostly an orchestra sending off an ex, but it shifts the gears into the final stretch. And when Susanne lets go her partner in "Trust Me", while singing "I cannot replace you / Like you do in your dreams," I can't help but feel like it's a natural conclusion to her tale.

Someone needs to get Sundfør out of Norway and onto the intentional stage more often, because I, for one, welcome our new Scandinavian overlords.