sofia talvik: florida

The artistic evolution of Sweden’s Sofia Talvik has been fleet and impressive, from the quiet and contemplative, stripped and innocent folk of her 2005 debut Blue Moon, through the folk-pop patchwork of 2007′s Street Of Dreams, to 2008′s sophisticated and striking Jonestown, a nugget of electro, folk and pop inspired by the Jonestown “massacre” in Guyana thirty years previously, in which more than nine hundred people belonging to the cult of religious leader Jim Jones took their own lives. For her fourth album in five years, Talvik sticks with the theme of America and guides it through more personal terrain, writing and producing everything herself for the first time. Building from the ground up, the emphasis is on mature and complex arrangements that perfectly accommodate her Northern European roots within the contours of American folk, blues and country, given extra authenticity by Talvik’s own travels through the American heartland over the past two years.

Diving right into the lush plains of the album’s landscape, the voluptuous first single ‘King Of The Willow Tree’ gets Talvik’s pseudo travelogue off to a melodious and exotic start, a nice touch of electric pedal steel giving the song a wonderful edge. The radiant title track follows as another strong candidate for a single release with a fluidity that skims the footprints of pop with a soulful, rustic feel that hinges on the use of a gospel blues choir. The familiar, softer side of Talvik’s songwriting emerges with ‘As We Catch On Fire’, a romantic ballad at once both melancholy and sweet, and is reinforced with a beautiful intensity on the mid-tempo folk of ‘In The Eye Of The Storm’. Talvik’s versatility as a vocalist is at the core of the song, her voice sweet and clear when delicate and, when raised, capable of making the pulse race.

The album’s second half is more calm and collected, beginning with the enchanting ‘More Than I Should Have’ and continuing through the more subtle and nuanced territories of ‘Paper House’, the moving ballad ‘The Light’, and the fragile ‘Maybe Then Will Be When’. In the end, it’s only as the bucolic finale ‘You Bring Me Back’ elapses into silence that Talvik’s spell is finally broken, leaving an impulse to live through the heady, ravishing experience all over again. Only once on the album does Talvik seems a little unsure of what she’s aiming for. Too repetitive and deliberate for radio play and slightly cheesy in execution, ‘You Plate Your Heart With Gold’ lacks the carefully constructed allure of the other songs here, saved only by the insight of the lyrics. This hiccup aside, Florida is an excellent album that rewards Talvik’s fearless autonomy with a sumptuous set of songs to listen to with eyes shut tight and ears wide open.

[Makaki Music; May 12, 2010]

Adapted from the original review in French here.

Written by: Sabine de Greef

Tags: florida, sofia talvik

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 10:29 am and is filed under albums & EPs, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.