Scandinavia is just bursting with talent right now. In the last 2 years, I’ve seen acts like the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Peter Bjorn and John, Lykke Li, and Miike Snow (well, two-thirds of the band are Swedish) go from virtual obscurity to worldwide attention. Soul singer Jenny Wilson might just be the next big thing to come from the land of IKEA. Stateside success appears to be just around the corner for Wilson, who awed industry types when she performed at CMJ in October 2009. In August she will release her second album, Hardships!, in America.
On the album cover, Wilson is sporting boho chic (black beret, black turtleneck sweater). But oddly, she is striking a potentially incendiary pose akin to Morrissey on the cover of his 2006 comeback album You Are the Quarry; she is seated and holding a rifle. In the case of Morrissey, it was assumed that this was a tongue-in-cheek gag to get people talking about his album, because he is widely known as a pacifist and impassioned supporter of animal rights. But I don’t know if Jenny Wilson hunts. Maybe she means to simply say, “don’t mess with me”?
But the cover doesn’t reflect the beautiful music contained within. Wilson may have been a bird in a past life. The title track is evidence of this, allowing Wilson to stretch her voice in different directions, with wonderful results. Her soulful warblings are of the pleasant kind, and not in the vein of, say, Jesca Hoop. This is a very rhythmically dynamic album, mostly dominated with dark piano touches. Touchstones include hip hop soul popularized by artists like Mary J. Blige and Erykah Badu (check out “The Wooden Chair,” “Porcelain Castle,” “Anchor Made of Gold”) and the idiosyncratic whimsy of Bjork. “Pass Me the Salt” and “Like a Fading Rainbow” (watch below) remind me of tracks by the late, great Aaliyah. To be honest, if I hadn’t read the words “Already an award-winning national sensation in her homeland of Sweden” on the promo material I received in the mail with the CD, I would guessed Wilson was from the ‘hood, not from Scandinavia.
Songs like “Only Here for the Fight” and “Strings of Grass” show reverence for ‘70s soul, complete with brass section. Speaking of brass, the instrumentation used to record this album is varied and interesting – how often do you see marimbas on pop records these days? Forget the album cover: you need this album.
Track Listing
01. The Path
02. Like a Fading Rainbow
03. Clattering Hooves
04. The Wooden Chair
05. Porcelain Castle
06. Anchor Made of Gold
07. Bad Waters
08. Only Here for the Fight
09. Pass Me the Salt
10. Motherhood
11. Hardships
12. We Had Everything
13. Strings of Grass
Hardships! by Jenny Wilson will be released on August 24 in America on Wilson’s own Gold Medal Recordings label. Wilson plans to tour here in early fall in support of the album.
