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Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

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Album Review

Soda Fountain Rag
It’s Rag Time! Yesboyicecream Records

Article written by Ged M - May 1, 2008

Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl is one woman with big ambitions. From Bergen, Norway, the talented multi-instrumentalist sings and plays everything on this record and comes across as a twee popster with a cruel streak, a blend of Belle and Sebastian and the early K Records catalogue. She can empathise with lonely teenagers in ‘You Sit and Wait for Life’ (“you cried tonight/ no one understands you at all”) but then she can get fired up by thoughts of revenge (“go, play in the traffic…everyone that I know hopes you die alone”). Lyrically, she shifts perspective and theme constantly, from unhappy teens nursing broken hearts to lesbian love at first sight, from hate and betrayal to public embarrassment and big sisterly advice. Musically, she switches between the racing electropop of ‘I Laugh Myself to Sleep’, the efflorescent pop-sense of ‘Go!’ and the fulsome ‘Monkey Girl’ which might sound like a band but is all still just Ragnhild. Every song is a short burst of naggingly sweet riffs and fluting keyboards, none more than three minutes and most under two. It amounts to a deceptive simplicity that conceals cleverly constructed, sweetly observed and charmingly spirited indie pop.

Links:
http://www.yesboyicecream.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sodafountainrag