An album on menstruation? blood bitch, released in 2016, vaporous offering, tackles the subject. Another on the art of making love? The Practice of Love, released in 2019, deals in particular with coitus, but not only, on synthetic electro-pop tunes. And before him there was the defiant Apocalypse, Girlin 2015, where the male anatomy was compared to a banana (smooth) and a rock (hard).
Posted at 5:00 p.m.
We therefore expected another rant from the experimental artist Jenny Hval with the arrival of Classic Objects. What topics will deserve his attention this time? In what inkwell will her poetic and fulminant pen dip?
And musically, will she wrap her dictation and her spoken word electrifying movements, or rather deconstructed jerky rhythms, as heard on Menneskekollektivet, released in 2021? Listen, then, to this Classic Objects.
The Norwegian artist still surprises us. But this time… by his conformity.
Musically, here we are in a pop album, built on classic tunes and natural sounds, where the instruments are real (organ, tambourines, guitar and even didgeridoo are heard) and envelop the lyrics – this time sung! – of the artist.
His fragile voice – which, unfortunately, breaks on one or two occasions, notably on American Coffee – is supported by a discreet and efficient choir.
Classic Objects is a melodious, soft disc, which allows us to discover an artist who has suffered from the pandemic and isolation. Because these are the subjects treated this time by the Norwegian: loneliness, capitalism, individualism, insecurity, freedom and vulnerability.
Hval communicates here her state of mind and her distress of the last few months, looks back on – painful – memories of her youth, on the anxiety attacks she experienced in her twenties.
Both in the musical construction and in the subjects covered, this is Jenny Hval’s most accessible album and probably her most personal. A nice introduction – but perhaps a little too smooth – for those who want to discover the artist’s work.
Pop
Classic Objects
Jenny Hval
4AD