Susanne Sundfør

[alan nagsworth]

One of those artists you discover and are kicking yourself for a week because you can't understand how you've never heard them before. I don't even recognise her name before yesterday! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE

Okay so at the moment I'm only familiar with Ten Love Songs, and I only heard it for the first time yesterday, but good god almighty I'll be damned if it isn't the most beautiful, ambitious, enthralling and magical fucking thing I've heard in a long long time. I was on my way to my girlfriend's last night and I realised it had been sitting on my phone for a couple of weeks, and decided I'd hammered that new Ariel Pink one enough for the time being and should give this thing a go. "The best pop album of 2015", Crack magazine had said. Let's see if Susanne can knock Carly Rae Jepsen off the top spot then.

Well, literally a minute and a half into opening track Darlings, I actually stopped and stood still in the street and said "fucking hell". I was completely captivated. This two-and-a-half minute album intro song is soaring, ethereal and beyond stunning. I was hooked immediately. By the time Fade Away hit its gloriously bouncy little synth solo, I was on the verge of tears. Tears of absolute joy. I've played that song about five times again since, and every time I have at least welled up, mouth agape (twice on the fucking tube during rush hour) like a caveman looking up at the stars with absolutely no way of comprehending the vast beauty spread out before him. Among the lilting folk-tinged ballads and spritely electro-pop hoofers also sits the ten-minute symphonic epic Memorial, which is an expansive and truly magnificent neo-classical composition, the likes of which you're unlikely to find anywhere else in contemporary pop music, save for maybe on a Björk album. It's SO GOOD.

Sincerely, this album is easily the best "new" piece of music I have discovered all year. This isn't "ooh, wow!" or even "oh YES!", this is "I could be alone with this music, enough Pot Noodles and water to not die, and a hole in the ground for a whole fucking week and be completely content." The fact that she has four other albums to get stuck into, three of which like this one have reached the number one spot in her native Norway, is even more thrilling to me. I cannot bloody wait to hear it all.

Susanne Sundfør then, lasses and lads. Who's a fan?

[Pseudopath]

Yeah...she's ace, isn't she? I only discovered her a couple of months ago when she sang at the Scott Walker BBC Proms and was mesmerised by her voice. Then I heard her stunning collaboration with John Grant and was thoroughly converted. Still need to hear some of her earlier stuff (her second album The Brothel is very highly regarded).

[purlieu]

That album is absolutely fucking incredible. I'm not taken on the last two tracks, but the others are just sublime in every way imaginable. There are so many wonderful touches, like the way 'Accelerate' leads into 'Fade Away', and the way it all stops for "you'll just have to learn the hard way" before the last chorus on 'Delirious'. And just all of 'Memorial', which is monumental (pretty sure the string arrangements are by her too).

It's by far her poppiest, though. I've not listened to her earlier ones in full, but from everything I've heard I wouldn't go in expecting anything quite as energetic.

[alan nagsworth]

It's by far her poppiest, though. I've not listened to her earlier ones in full, but from everything I've heard I wouldn't go in expecting anything quite as energetic.

Yeah her new one is apparently very stripped back, but judging from the folky stuff on Ten Love Songs, like Darlings and Silencer, I'm willing to bet she can be just as magnificent when she's toning it down.

She's playing the bloody Union Chapel (which for non-London heads is a beautiful church in Islington with really fantasic acoustics) like NEXT WEEK, and I'm gutted I'm late to the game on this. Seeing her there would be so wonderful. But then she's playing again next March two days before my birthday so I'm all over that like a fucking hot towel mate

[Twit 2]

ABBA for grownups.

[Norton Canes]

The best James Band theme that never was

[Crabwalk]

Wow, some enthusiastic endorsements here. Will listen forthwith...

[purlieu]

The best James Band theme that never was

Oof yes, you can even see the climax of the opening scene working well with the bit string build up and then POW into the opening credits.

[Twit 2]

ZAXAXAXSAAAA

[Kane Jones]

I like her, but I'm not in love with her. The best thing I've heard her on is Royksopp's cover of Depeche Mode's Ice Machine which they covered on their Late Night Tales compilation in 2013.

Yer Tis;

https://youtu.be/kV-7BfP02os

[Jerzy Bondov]

The best James Band theme that never was

Wow nice! Although it sounds like Pipes of Peace at the start.

[Norton Canes]

ABBA for grownups

ABBA then.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Had a go on this, this afternoon. I liked it.

[Pseudopath]

Yeah her new one is apparently very stripped back, but judging from the folky stuff on Ten Love Songs, like Darlings and Silencer, I'm willing to bet she can be just as magnificent when she's toning it down.

In terms of beats, perhaps...but the orchestration on her new album is off the chart.

[falafel]

I wanted to start this thread a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time to do it justice. I was flabbergasted that there wasn't one already. She is a treasure. The new album is absolutely sublime by the way, but very different to the last one. Quite subdued but really works as a whole and the John Grant collab is the last track - in the context of the album it really is a euphoric coda, it really rewards sitting through the whole thing in a way that is rare these days.

[falafel]

And to think I only listened to her for the first time because the single came up on my streaming app as a John Grant song. Thank God for that careless misattribution.

[falafel]

And on that (John Grant) note, if anyone wants to start a thread on Asgeir, please do. And if you don't know who he is, go to his first album In The Silence before the current one which is still good but not AS good.

[Kane Jones]

And on that (John Grant) note, if anyone wants to start a thread on Asgeir, please do. And if you don't know who he is, go to his first album In The Silence before the current one which is still good but not AS good.

I really enjoyed In The Silence when it was released (although I've never heard the Icelandic language version, only the John Grant translated version). I gave the second album a try, but just felt it was the same but not as good. There was no real growth. Still, In The Silence is a gorgeous record, no doubt.

[Blinder Data]

Saw her last night after buying a ticket on a whim. Her voice is flipping amazing live. It was just her and keyboard, piano and guitar. She did a nice cover of American Tune.

Now going through her discography. Dear John is a lovely tune (with a hint of Bond theme going on).

[Blinder Data]

Stream of new album on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Abet-OycQpE

[Custard]

She's great. Absolutely love Accelerate, Kamikaze, Delirious, and Fade Away. It's All Gone Tomorrow from The Brothel is a cracker too

Her tune with Royksopp, Running To The Sea, is insanely beautiful

https://youtu.be/eaGpdhienMk

[falafel]

Duty-bound. If you haven't listened to Mountaineers, please do:

https://youtu.be/7D3_TDB4zzA

And then Fade Away: https://youtu.be/PS9xLhn-1vw


Come on, world. Have a heart. Love this woman.

[weekender]

Have to be honest, she sounds amazing.  Only listened to a few tracks so far, but they're all ace.

I love discoveries like this, thank you all for posting.