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ANMELDELSE
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Sissel: All Good Things Well, split my sail! Of all the pop-singing ladies on earth, I would without hesitating an instant, choose Sissel! And what do I meet in the intro to her first album in six years, other than an ultramodern composition where the percussion could have been mixed by Goldie? It couldn't last the entire album, but on its terms "All Good Things" is an arrow quite near the center of the bull's eye. When I choose Sissel, I don't do it in "competition" with, for example, Björk or PJ Harvey. One doesn't compare Frank Sinatra with Tom Waits or Bob Dylan either. But when the Americans and the world for that matter come forth with their entire gang, Toni Braxton, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, I choose Sissel from Norway (for the time being Copenhagen). Listen to what she does with "Carrier Of A Secret"!! Those who I just mentioned would most certainly sing it fine - just not as fine. Close on its heels is a song penned by Lene Marlin. "Should It Matter" is a pretty song, but could stand here more as an example of what arrangement means. Young Marlin could certainly have used this song herself, and the opening isn't so far from "Playing My Game." The point is that the first-rate arranger Jørn Dahl has understood that Sissel requires a completely different type of packaging. Simply said, there's not much "Sitting Down Here." The song is impressive, and the fact is that it doesn't sound dated - as I feared after being served the first single from the album. The title track definitely doesn't sound dated, either, composed by Morten Abel. Team Sissel has gone entirely Norwegian, and that they've done very cleverly. And not the least, they score points for including the Norwegian "Lær meg å kjenne," a so-called "traditional." It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this is the song which foreigners fall in love with. As Jonas Fjeld said after one of his tours with Danko & Andersen: "It was never so quiet in the American clubs as when I brought out my Norwegian lyrics..." The desire - mixed up in all the modern studio technology and money - to create a relatively earthy album, is again reflected in the duet with Espen Lind on his "Where The Lost Ones Go." We know that Sissel can have Carreras or Domingo whenever she wants, but she obviously doesn't want them. Besides a few small uncertainties, as far as I can tell, they've staked out the right course. (The fact that the album style-wise lies miles from what I personally would have liked is my problem, not Sissel Kyrkjebø's. With her beautiful voice she can do whatever she wants, but if she doesn't want to go in a more modern pop/rock direction, well, so she doesn't. And one thing is completely certain: the artist which is pressed into a style where she doesn't feel entirely comfortable, that artist will 100 percent certain be unsuccessful.) But will this album be The BIG International Breakthrough? I think that comes to Sissel herself - because the album is good enough. That requires that she let her husband watch the children for a while, about a year or so. In order to get it going, she must go out on tour. It is certainly dreadfully boring; if you've seen one hotel room, you've seen them all. But there are no other ways to Pop Stardom. (And if things should go awfully after a few weeks around Singapore or Tokyo, she can just take a little trip over to Akersgata - in Oslo; where they'll come flying to hear her.) If she can handle these stresses, this can go wherever she wants. Arild Rønsen, translated from Norwegian by Robert A Jones |
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