The Northern Belle – Bats in the Attic
This is nice stuff but it’s more for the Abba-Cardigans crowd than traditional Americana-oriented fans. Highly commercialized well-written pop songs with excellent female vocals that deal with varied topics. Built around a conceptual foundation of life & death & a bundle of 60-year-old letters. The music is polished with finesse, harmonies & melodies that will stick to you like honey.
The 11chiropterans in this scrapbook are all part of the appealing Bats in the Attic (Drops March 8/Die With Your Boots On Records/42:00) produced by Marcus Forsgren. While many songs are all fine & have their pop attraction they fortunately don’t dip too liberally in musical sugar.
“Higher Power,” is the first sparkler. A beautiful ballad sung with sincerity. The Norwegian band has mastered fluidity in a songwriting craft that can easily slip into banality & cliche. Not so here. The songs have a veneer that is icy cool easy listening with a bracing pop word spray & ambitious harmonies.
While at this time the vocals, as pristine as they are, are not highly distinguished they sound extremely close to Abba in tradition. There’s nothing to suggest a delivery that’s expressive in an original manner. I happen to like the way Stine sings. She just has to study some vocal soulfulness, some fashioning of the vocalizing to allow her tonality to develop a unique intonation to set her apart from the pack. It’s all there – it needs to be set free and…“Fresh Dew Drippin’” suggests it.
This is a reinforced rocker with an almost Celtic air & a coda performed with gusto, exposes the elements & is a monster great energetic tune. I had to close my eyes & let it run around barefoot in my head. Dynamic is the word.
There’s no lack of talent here. When they want to rip – they do it uniformly with fiery guitars. thunderous drums & smoke rising from their fiddles. Lots of vigor & they squeeze the song tight. All they need is a little petrol & stand back. Folky? They succeed appealingly on the acoustic balladry of “Japanese” & “Grow Up,” both — delicious.
Ms. Andreassen is more distinguished with her smokier poignant voice that keeps a little cinnamon in her flavorful tone. Lovely.
“Hell & Back” is an exuberant piece. The musicianship is superb & the songs after some listens aren’t as simplistic as Abba – there’s more depth. “Even Dylan Can’t Make This Right,” is imbued with seriousness & charm. This is no Abba. Marvelous & rare in pop music.
Highlights – “Higher Power,” “Stargazer,” “Fresh Dew Drippin’” “Japanese,” “Even Dylan Can’t Make This Right” & “Grow Up.”
Musicians – Stine Andreassen (vocals/guitar), Bjornar Ekse Brandseth (guitar/.pedal steel), Trym Gjermundbo (drums/percussion), Ole-Andre Sjogren (guitar/piano/harmonies), Marie Tveiten (guitar/harmonies), Johanne Flottorp (Hardanger fiddle/fiddle/harmonies) with Solveig Wang (keys), Marcus Forsgren (synth/harmonies) & Snorre Kiil Saga (bass).
Color image courtesy of Northern Belle website. CD & song samples @ https://thenorthernbelle.bandcamp.com/album/bats-in-the-attic & https://www.thenorthernbelle.no/