Track listing
Show track credits
- 1 When Debbie's Back From Texas 4:08
-
guitar, bass, drums, percussion
-
guitar
-
bass
-
- 2 Viewed From the Spire 3:48
-
flute
-
saxophone
-
Jonas Arlertguitar
-
- 3 Crime 5:40
-
trumpet
-
saxophone
-
guitar
-
Jonas Arlertguitar
-
- 4 Fireworks 5:46
-
Martin Greensaxophone
-
guitar
-
bass
-
- 5 Proposal 1:56
-
flute
-
drums, percussion
-
- 6 Little Star 3:42
-
saxophone
-
- 7 Hopefully Yours 4:44
-
guitar
-
bass
-
- 8 Murder in Mairyland Park 4:12
-
strings
-
drums, percussion
-
- 9 I See You Again 3:26
-
trumpet
-
drums, percussion
-
- 10 So This Is Goodbye 4:35
-
guitar, bass, drums, percussion
-
guitar
-
Jonas Arlertguitar
-
- 11 Something Nice 4:42
-
Martin Greensaxophone
-
guitar
-
bass
-
- 12 And She Closed Her Eyes 2:33
- Total length: 49:12
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
To rate, slide your finger across the stars from left to right.
4 Issues
30 Reviews
Some days my mind responds to this like a cool glass of rainbow pixie-dust, and other days...man, it's like slowly peeling the last layer of skin from my inner ear. Stina Nordenstam's singing is somewhere between the world's most adorable six year old and a squeak in your car's fan belt. You may want to put in some oil, (or whatever fixes a fan belt) in the car, but you'd never tell a six year old (especially adorable ones) to shut the hell up. So I'm stuck in musically purgatory on this one.
Her production team (Go Team!) save her on this one. Organs plunk, flutes float, guitars strum together to keep Nordenstam's quiver of a voice box from drifting away like a tissue in the wind. All of the songs are set upon the gentle acoustic pairings with a girl who sounds like she may be trying to communicate to a depressed dolphin.
Still, there is a nice quiet little album here. I rarely find the right time listen to it anymore though. I think that's because it shares a row on my CD shelf with the likes of Motorhead, and I swear, every time I pull it out for a listen I can see Lemmy wincing and slowly shaking his head at me.
Her production team (Go Team!) save her on this one. Organs plunk, flutes float, guitars strum together to keep Nordenstam's quiver of a voice box from drifting away like a tissue in the wind. All of the songs are set upon the gentle acoustic pairings with a girl who sounds like she may be trying to communicate to a depressed dolphin.
Still, there is a nice quiet little album here. I rarely find the right time listen to it anymore though. I think that's because it shares a row on my CD shelf with the likes of Motorhead, and I swear, every time I pull it out for a listen I can see Lemmy wincing and slowly shaking his head at me.
Published
ADVERTISEMENT
"little star" is beautiful in a fragile way , like holding a tiny egg in your hand straight from the nest .
Published
Despite myself I ended up really enjoying this.
Stina Nordenstam's "And She Closed Her Eyes" see's her taking dream pop to a place I'm haven't really heard before. Part of this is due to her slightly nasally pixie-like voice. I can see that when people might initially hear this record they could be turned off by it. For me it kind of gave the album a mysterious almost otherworldly quality. Call it the Joanna Newson effect (although Stina obviously predates her music.). The voice aside, I really appreciate how stripped the productions are while maintaining quite a bit of beauty. Everytime that sax comes in on something like "something nice" it adds texture. Everytime the layering vocals slide in there is a serene quality that is added. The lyrics, for as oblique as they are, they do in my opinion add a subconscious quality to it. Despite the art-yness of it all, the compositions are catchy. Almost twee. I thought it was a pleasant experience and if you think you can get past the voice and how prominent it is in the mix, I think you'll find some value out of it.Published
This music is so delicate it makes Daniel Johnston sound like Johnny Cash. With that said, there's still some pretty great songwriting here, and songs like "Murder in Mairyland Park" delve into art rock territory, and I think its all the better for it.
Favorite tracks: Hopefully Yours, Murder in Mairyland Park, Something Nice
Favorite tracks: Hopefully Yours, Murder in Mairyland Park, Something Nice
Published
The weak points here are highly forgettable for me, but what I loved about the more experimental and off-sounding Dynamite was the contrast between her voice and the instruments... Here there are slower tracks (Crime, Proposal, I See You Again...) that work like none of the slow ones there did for me. The low points are forgettable enough that I want to drop the rating, but I love the good parts enough that I'm keeping it at a 4 anyway.
Published
A Challenging Album with a Challenging Aesthetic.
Unfortunately, This album just isn't hitting me emotionally. It's not for a lack of trying. It attempts to be very pretty and intimate - and it is, but at the cost of other things. Maybe it does have to do with the vocal delivery. It's so restrained, shy, and afraid to emote. I get sadness and regret from the lyrics, but I don't feel those emotions.
The mix is hard to swallow. Particularly the vocals. They're extremely loud, which probably was a challenge for whoever mixed this. Her voice is tiny, and when turned up this loud against some bare instrumentation it can be quite claustrophobic. It's also a dry, bare vocal so it really does feel like she's right up next to your head (if you've got headphones on).
The singing is a debate I guess, but she has that odd/foreign pronunciation that's enough to at least keep it interesting for me. A lot of times it seems like what I'm listening to is closer to slowly-spoken-word rather than singing.
As far as the lyrics go, they are probably the best thing about the album. They're cryptic. Poetic. They can be vague and littered with metaphors. Often times they are cinematic; especially the shorter songs. They paint some scene from her memory, and you only get a glimpse of it.
I don't fully understand a lot of these tracks here - some might see that as good while others might be frustrated by it. I'm not too bothered usually, but when I'm not hit emotionally, don't understand what I'm being told, and the mix is a little grating ... I don't have much of a want to return.
Favorite Track - Murder in Mairyland Park
Published
ADVERTISEMENT
I agree with it being too delicate and a little pompous overall, though it's still very pleasant, but what a pair of songs "Viewed From the Spire" and "Crime" are !
Published
Good heavens, this is absolutely diabolical.
She's taken the singing style of Bilinda Butcher yet completely stripped it of the ethereal, transcendent, psychedelic qualities that make it great, turned it up really loud in the mix so it's very stark and drowns out the rest of the music, and employed no discernible effects or variation whatsoever - all of which for 49 long, torturesome minutes.
Any good points are rendered nugatory by the abominable singing.
She's taken the singing style of Bilinda Butcher yet completely stripped it of the ethereal, transcendent, psychedelic qualities that make it great, turned it up really loud in the mix so it's very stark and drowns out the rest of the music, and employed no discernible effects or variation whatsoever - all of which for 49 long, torturesome minutes.
Any good points are rendered nugatory by the abominable singing.
Published
Votes are used to help determine the most interesting content on RYM.
Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term.
Vote down content which breaks the rules.
Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term.
Vote down content which breaks the rules.
Catalog
18 May 2024
17 May 2024
16 May 2024
15 May 2024
14 May 2024
12 May 2024
10 May 2024
10 May 2024
9 May 2024
8 May 2024
7 May 2024
7 May 2024
5 May 2024
2 May 2024
28 Apr 2024
Contributions
Log in to submit a correction or upload art for this release