Weekly Release Spotlight: Frida Hyvonen
Posted on 12/07/2008
Frida Hyvonen
Silence Is Wild
[Secretly Canadian]
Why the term "sophomore slump" has no positive-leaning corollary is confounding and unclear. Swedish charmer Frida Hyvonen's follow-up to 2005's Until Death Comes doesn't necessarily improve upon the debut as much as it pulls out all the stops, expanding and refining every aspect of that album that expressed remarkable potential. Death was a solid indicator of Hyvonen's strengths, but the new Silence Is Wild deftly exhibits her talents for the indie-familiar piano-led pop melodies with a morose awkwardness that places her on a plane unto herself.
Her lyrics and rich croon come off as wiser than your average pixie twee princess and more dissenting than what feels comfortable alongside tambourines and major chords. Her rhymes are often internal or not present at all and her tendency to never repeat verses/choruses the same way twice. All this and yet, every single element of her unusual songwriting, whether it be structural or decorative, is methodically placed within ditties that are much more accessibly traditional than they are daringly avant-garde. With just this pinch of stilted unconventionality, Silence transforms from capable to incendiary.
"You count on the birds / you count on them to represent your longing," Hyvonen quips with a self-aware smirk on the almost anti-whimsical "Birds," and the 60s-style circus organ underneath it all only confuses further as to whether she's meaning to communicate sympathy or metaphor-hating sarcasm. This maybe-maybe-not irony that induces a gorgeous kind of malaise pops up throughout the album's best tracks, including the Swayze-referencing "Dirty Dancing" and the genuinely spirited "London!," which contains the hilarious line "the way you hate me is better than love and I'm head over heels." Hyvonen is a treasure to Sweden's already overflowing pool of musical savvy, and her unguarded brand of vexatious piano pop seems to only be getting better with every release.
Stream: Frida Hyvonen - Enemy Within
Written by Chris Polley, Radio K volunteer and host of Now Like Photographs.