Jenny Hval - Conceptual Romance

You could call Norwegian singer and composer Jenny Hval’s work a lot of things: challenging, experimental, noisy, abstract… But accessible? Well, on her last album ‘Apocalpyse, Girl’, opener ‘Kingsize’ talked about “the huge capitalist clit” and paused to ask “what is soft dick rock?” Yeah; accessible is pretty much the last thing you’d think of.

So ‘Conceptual Romance’ doesn’t totally sound like a typical Jenny Hval song. Despite the fact that she sings “I’m high, high on madness,” it’s actually a pretty tranquil affair, filled with smatterings of twinkling piano, ethereal synths and a very sweetly delivered chorus. But this is Jenny Hval. She couldn’t have just made a typical synthpop ballad. Instead, there’s enough surreal poetic license and lo-fi production to suggest that she’s not going mainstream just yet. Still, between this and ‘Female Vampire’ there’s enough to suggest that her upcoming album ‘Blood Bitch’ might just be (whisper it, quietly) accessible.