Artist : Jenny Hval Album : Iris Silver Mist Label : 4AD Link : https://jennyhval.com/ Style: Pop, Alternative & Indie
The Norwegian Jenny Hval takes us into a world of delicate, luminous light, with a sophisticated pop style and many strings to her bow. Her new album Iris Silver Mist is filled with layers of sound as light as perfume.
While still a teenager, she played lead vocals in a gothic metal band and studied writing in Melbourne, which led her first to write newspaper articles, then to publish short stories and novels. Back in Norway, she produced her own music, initially under the name Rockettothesky, then under her own name. At the same time, she was involved in the Lost Girl project. In her albums, the theme of sensory memory is often evoked and used to remind listeners of sensations already experienced.
On Iris Silver Mist (deliberately named after a perfume), Jenny Hval tells us about the emotions that her sense of smell can bring back when she detects familiar scents. To achieve this, she employs an airy pop style, full of weightless atmospheres, sometimes verging on the ambient, but always with a charming underpinning. With her seductive, high-pitched vocals and her carefully crafted sonic entanglements, she gives us a sense of height to better apprehend her rich, personal musical landscape, all in a calm rhythm where each element has time to blossom.
In addition to the instruments traditionally found in pop and folk music, there are soft electronica sounds, with a few hints of field recordings that are even more appreciable when listened to through headphones. These components are not scattered, and the sensation is not one of collage or superimposition, but rather of evolution, as in the olfactory notes of a perfume that we detect more and more. The rhythm remains gentle, while the caressing layers of sound draw you into this weightless world.
Artist : Ezra Furman Album : Goodbye Small Head Label : Bella Union Link : https://ezrafurman.com/ Style : Pop/Rock, Rock, Alternatif & Indie
After igniting the Sex Education soundtrack over four seasons, Erza Furman returns with Goodbye Small Head, a tenth pop rock album full of emotion and confessed fragility.
Chicago-born Erza Furman came out of the closet four years ago, and in the space of a dozen albums, initially with the band The Harpoons, she has become an important figure in the queer community. This success stems in part from the themes addressed in her songs, around questions of identity, and the impact that mental disorders on people she may have encounter in her family, but also quite simply from the quality of her compositions. She has gained even greater notoriety since composing the soundtrack for the aforementioned Netflix series.
Erza Furman’s records combine the energy of her early punk days with a lyricism driven by string arrangements, that lend a warm flamboyance and extra intensity to her songs. Her voice, sometimes androgynous, sometimes rougher, is always full of emotion, reminiscent of PJ Harvey or Brett Anderson from Suede’s early days. The compositions are personal and varied, and show great inspiration throughout. They know how to maintain interest for the attentive listener, while keeping a unity that never confuses when changing tracks.
Erza Furman doesn’t seem to ask herself any questions when crafting her songs. Violins can be played alongside or after samples or drum machines, without fear of appearing overdone. The only thing that counts is the expression of emotion; far from formatted compositions, it’s easy to take pleasure in letting yourself be carried into the artist’s world. If, on the other hand, you choose to concentrate, you’ll be just as delighted by the sonic discoveries that give these tracks their distinctive character.
Deradoorian, while keeping modern pop rock as her central inspiration, doesn’t hesitate to mix seemingly antagonistic styles on her fourth album, Ready For Heaven.
California-born Angel Deradoorian began learning the violin and piano at the age of five. As her interest in music grew, she decided to leave school to devote herself fully to her passion. She moved to Brooklyn and, after a few experiments, in 2007 joined the indie rock band Dirty Projectors, which she left five years later with a view to devoting herself to more personal projects. She then became close to Animal Collective and released her first solo album in 2015, in addition to making a name for herself as part of the duo Decisive Pink.
On her fourth album, Deradoorian maps out the styles that inspire her. We can see that she follows her desires without trying to stick to any particular label, and that’s what makes this record so original. Despite its diversity, the record acquires an overall tonality that becomes more and more evident the more you listen to it. Without shying away from a clearly arty approach, the tracks move from the New York post-punk of the ’80s to the repetitive side of krautrock, the precursors of the electronics that also make their presence felt here. A few jazzy, industrial or reggae touches round off the soundtrack.
Clearly, the artist loves the studio and production. The musical lines are superimposed, giving coherence to an assembly of modules whose cohabitation might have seemed incongruous elsewhere. The clear guitar at the beginning can saturate elsewhere, the saxophone can go from languorous ambiences to heart-rending flights of fancy, as can the rhythms, sometimes almost hypnotic and at other times more danceable. Interestingly, the varied timbres maintain a general sound tinged with torpor, in line with the tensions perceived by the musician within our society.
Artist : Damiano David Album : Funny Little Fears Label : Sony Music Italy – Arista Records Link : https://www.damianodavidofficial.com/ Style : Pop
With Funny Little Fears, his first album during his break with Måneskin, Damiano David turns to affordable, uninhibited and well-produced pop, ready to conquer a wide audience.
Italian Damiano David’s musical story really began in high school, when he met Victoria De Angelis, who played bass, and Thomas Raggi, guitar. He insisted on joining their band, called Måneskin. The band came to prominence in 2017 when they took part in the Italian TV show X Factor. Their rock is exuberant and whimsical, with references to Glam. Despite their Eurovision prize in 2021, Damiano felt increasingly out of step with the persona he had created for himself and went solo in 2024, releasing a few singles that preceded this debut album.
Taking his first steps away from the band Måneskin, the singer opted for a more approachable pop style, sung in English and flirting with the easy listening of the mainstream. While the themes addressed in his songs are more intimate, the artist seems intent on reconnecting with the carefree spirit that characterized the Italian variety that broke through on the international airwaves in the ’80s and ’90s. However, the musical standards are those of today’s international pop, and it’s a safe bet that the tracks on this album will find their way onto playlists and mainstream radio stations.
Listening to this record, there are no production or recording surprises. But on the other hand, it’s a perfect album for sharing your passion for hi-fi with neophytes, potentially hermetic to jazz and classical. Although the timbres are well rendered, it is more the dynamics that come to the fore, and a certain emphasis in both composition and interpretation. The soundstage is also solid without being demonstrative. A fine piece of studio work, if not very inventive.
Artiste : Car Seat Headrest Album : The Scholars Label : Matador Lien : https://www.carseatheadrest.com/ Style : Pop-Rock, Alternative
Car Seat Headrest offers The Scholars, a record with a narrative spread out in the manner of concept albums from the golden age of rock, the perfect pretext for unfurling their searching, gripping pop.
After all, Car Seat Headrest started out as Will Toledo’s own recordings, which he distributed via the Bandcamp website. Parts of the songs were recorded in the family car, hence the name of the project. After his studies, he moved to Seattle, and it was from this point on that we could speak of a band, with the arrival of other musicians. In 2015, the band signed with the renowned independent label Matador Records, for whom they recorded a handful of albums, which included Will Tuledo’s original tracks reworked for the occasion.
The Scholars adopts a narrative structure inherited from the concept albums of the 70s. From the outset, the band has operated in a pure pop-rock style that can best be described as classic, but with an element of momentum and a breadth full of lyricism that is evident on this album, where the compositions evolve in structures far removed from the sempiternal verse-chorus. In the more adventurous moments of their pop side, one is reminded of Animal Collective, who would have abandoned their electronic paraphernalia as well as their long studio work to leave more room for immediacy. All this without falling into the lo-fi of Will Toledo’s early solo recordings.
The voice, which alternates between strength and fragility, always full of emotion, is barely in the foreground, with the guitars, which can be acoustic and clear, or conversely full of saturation and more shadowy to accompany the narrative. Rhythm, too, plays an important role in shaping track structures and modulating tempo as they evolve. The production perfectly captures these different moods and, as a sign of its quality, will highlight different characteristics depending on whether you’re listening on speakers that favor a wide soundstage, or with headphones that are more faithful to detail.
