I can’t get terribly excited about Who We Are. It’s just too bland
It’s frustrating. I’d like to embrace it more. And there are glimpses of just the sort of sounds I like most here and there.
Don’t get me wrong both singer Viktoria Tolstoy and pianist Jacob Karlzon from Sweden are excellent musicians.
I like above all Tolstoy’s work with Esbjörn Svensson on 1997’s White Russian. That was far more jazzier than what’s here.
Perhaps it’s the middle of the roadness of Who We Are that prevents me really relating to the album. A song like ‘Satellites’ is so creamy and pristine. There isn’t really a darkness. ‘Who We Are’ is a little moodier but again there isn’t really an edge. The piano accompaniment wraps itself around the vocals beautifully but again it doesn’t move me much.
And yet persevering, the cover of Billy Joel’s hymn like ‘And So It Goes’ seems like a reset. And the cover of Tori Amos’ ‘Cloud on my Tongue’ is even better. There’s practically no jazz on the album despite both players’ pedigree. It feels more pop and like a ballads, easy listening singer-songwriter statement instead.
The heavy thumping keyboards of Karlzon’s ‘The Great Escape’ is too much of a jolt. And the album seems to be restlessly pursuing a number of options at the same time that don’t necessarily all quite sit together enough given that ‘Off-White’ immediately afterwards is a very soft ballad. Among the originals the lyrics aren’t memorable. ‘Trigger Warning’ seems to belong to another record entirely and could have happily been left out.
Overall the song I am most convinced by is ‘Stay’ even if the lyrics are a bit clunky. And I wonder if it was a good idea to cover Radiohead’s ‘True Love Waits’. It could have been a lot starker.
Vibes & sax add a lot to what Little North can now deliver
Beefed up instrumentation and the Brooklyn buzz suit the Danes
Molly Johnson is back
New music from the Canadian has a late night crossover mood about it on her first album in 5 years.
Swallow winters out
Warm love in the room for Carla: ‘4’ and ‘6’ stand out most. Steve Swallow isn’t afraid to swing.
