Stina Nordenstam

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when was the last time you actually listened to This is?

Honestly I had no idea this was Brett Anderson until you told me. I still barely notice him on those two tracks. "Everyone else in the world" is easily one of her best song.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

The Lex is very OTM re: Stina's high pitch deadpan. It reminds of a Thom Yorke quote I never fully believed: "You often have to sing unemotionally in order to sound emotional". Stina has this incredible way of projecting dramatic apathy; it often sounds like she is on the verge of collapsing and yet she couldn't be more comfortable in that position.

I have a bit of a soft spot for "This Is", because it was my first Stina record, but it does seem a bit too self-conscious in places. I have a feeling the bsides were kicked off the album because they were over 3 minutes long. I do love how the cheap MIDI saxophone riff on "Lori Glory" is nearly morphed into something meaningful by Stina's downtrodden vocals. The same transformation happens with the cheap synthesized acoustic guitars on Michael Mayer's "Slowflood" (although that is more due to the arrangement).

"This is" also has Brett Anderson sounding more dignified than 90% of his material post-Dog Man Star.

"And She Closed Her Eyes" and "Dynamite" are two of my favorite albums from the 90s.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

that saxophone on Lori Glory is such a Eno/Bowie rip off (it's straight off of v2 Schneider)! I love it!

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a feeling the bsides were kicked off the album because they were over 3 minutes long.

B-sides? I didn't even know there were singles! What are the b-sides like?

I went back to This Is... and Dynamite last night and fuck me, they're both superb.

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Sharon and Hope's first two lines always sound a lot like Walk Away Renee to me. I'm ok with it, but everytime I get disappointed, because Sharon and Hope's chorus is so much weaker.. :(

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 22 November 2004 07:55 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Ok, again, I'm really enjoing The World Is Saved, and Tim is OTM re: Stina's arranging skills. It does work as a counterpart to Dynamite, but in an evolutionary sense; Dynamite feels like a rough, amateurish sketch(i do love it, still) for the songs on TWIS, in comparison. This is surely her masterpiece to date.

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 3 January 2005 09:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"rough amateurish sketch" - hmm yeah on the one hand this is one hundred percent correct, but on the other... songs like "Dynamite", "CQD" and "Down Desire Avenue" strike me as really virtuouso in the arrangement department - rough, yes, but absolutely voluptuous at the same time. If anything I wish The World Is Saved had more moments like these, moments of unabashed surround-sound maximalism. The two which most fit the bill are my two favourite tracks - "From Cayman Islands With Love" and especially "Morning Belongs To The Night", which I'd say is perhaps the most accomplished, flat out impressive thing she's done.

People who like those might like a lot of the darker songs on Lhasa's The Living Road album, although Lhasa is pretty much the opposite of Stina vocally.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 January 2005 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I used to find it interesting how Stina would be bracketed with Bjork, when in many ways they're polar opposites as vocalists.

People who like those might like a lot of the darker songs on Lhasa's The Living Road album, although Lhasa is pretty much the opposite of Stina vocally.

well, which is more accurate?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 3 January 2005 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd forgotten that earlier comment! Stina is the opposite of a lot of people actually, in that she deliberately subtracts a lot of the emotion and expressiveness from her vocals. Lhasa's voice is deep and full whereas Bjork's is high (and thus closer in pitch to Stina) but Bjork is probably more OTT than Lhasa - who is melodramatic in a different way.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Monday, 3 January 2005 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

There are a few moments of that grand sound on People Are Strange too, if I recall correctly, nestled in Like A Swallow, I Dream Of Jeannie, and Reason To Believe, but it still sounds relatively embryonic. TWIS is a confluence of the warmth and lushness of PAS with a more developed dissonance taken from Dynamite. This Is... is the odd one out, sitting more with the first two albums in terms of uncontinued ideas. TWIS is a much more natural follow up to PAS, for me.

I used to love Dynamite a lot, and it really hit me hard in, oh, 1999 or so when I first found it. Since getting into TWIS, I'm less enamoured, somehow. Maybe it's just less striking now. It's still a phenomenal album, just less monolithic, I guess.

re: vocals, yeah, it's a constant understatement. she's developed it over time, too; Memories of a Colour, while still nowhere near the operatic grandstanding Bjork is famous for, is much more conventionally expressive. She's become more deadpan with each album since, I think, and it's worked better and better, maybe less so on This Is....

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

03 stina nordenstam - the things you said.mp3
01 stina nordenstam - i could still (be an actor).mp3
16 freddie wadling & stina nordenstam - v?landsvisan.mp3
14 vangelis & stina nordenstam - slow piece (128kbps).mp3
15 vangelis - ask the mountains (extended version).mp3
07 stina nordenstam - dynamite (soundtrack mix).mp3
09 zbigniew preisner with stina nordenstam - for you.mp3
11 stina nordenstam - people are strange (unkle remix).mp3
06 mew feat stina nordenstam - her voice is beyond her years.mp3
05 stina nordenstam - greetings from the old.mp3
02 stina nordenstam - now when i see you.mp3
13 fleshquartet (vocals by s nordenstam & tim wolde) - someo.mp3
04 stina nordenstam - treat me nice.mp3
08 stina nordenstam - first day in spring.mp3
10 yello with stina nordenstam - to the sea (radio version n.mp3
12 stina nordenstam - little star (be zet wireless edit).mp3

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Are those all her rarities, Skilla?

The new(ish) album is fantastic. That is all.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

yes.

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I love that epic ambient remix of Little Star.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

Here's a rare interview with Stina from last year:
http://www.desireavenue.com/spec/singing/

Great reading.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 11 April 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

"The World Is Saved" has now been released in the U.S. with three good bonus tracks: "Failing to Fly," Get On With Your Life (Pluxus Mix,)" and "The End of A Love Affair (Faultline Remix.)"

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 24 June 2005 00:55 (twenty years ago)

Hm, waiting a bit might have been the right idea!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 June 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

NICE!

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 24 June 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

great

― a real bear behind the microphone (nordicskilla), Friday, 24 June 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

Even nicer for you David, as a quote from your review made it to the album cover.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 24 June 2005 03:01 (twenty years ago)

DAVID LOVES STINA

― a real bear behind the microphone (nordicskilla), Friday, 24 June 2005 03:06 (twenty years ago)

YOU ARE SHITTING ME

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 24 June 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

Heheh, the power of Pitchfork.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 June 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

I tried to order this via GEMM when it was released, but got ripped off. So, hurrah.

It's a shame all of her records aren't released in the States. Really an underrated artist of the last 15 years. Everyone I've ever played her for has liked her--and non-music-freaks like my sisters recognise her from the 'Romeo + Juliet' soundtrack, apparently, and like her, too.

― I.M. (I.M.), Friday, 24 June 2005 04:03 (twenty years ago)

Not shitting you man!

xpost

― Michael "Not very Quotable" Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 24 June 2005 04:04 (twenty years ago)

'The World Is Saved' is easily my favourite album from last year.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Friday, 24 June 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)

goddamn you US bonus tracks!

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 24 June 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

aaargh bonus tracks!

― The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 24 June 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

oooh, i will get this

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 24 June 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

This is still a perfect winter album. I love it greatly

― Googley Asearch (Toaster), Saturday, 5 November 2005 00:10 (twenty years ago)

It is almost THE perfect winter album.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Saturday, 5 November 2005 00:14 (twenty years ago)

I can't recall any other album of this decade that has kept me interested and charmed for this long.

― Googley Asearch (Toaster), Saturday, 5 November 2005 00:19 (twenty years ago)

haha i just started listening to it in the past week again too.

note cold snap in england.

― The Lex (The Lex), Saturday, 5 November 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

Just dl'd this last week. I really happy she's released a decent album again. I don't know if ten years can ever be "worth the wait", but I'm glad anyway.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Saturday, 5 November 2005 15:40 (twenty years ago)

(I like parts of the previous three, and Memories, but find them a bit tedious the whole way through.)

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Saturday, 5 November 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

I came around massively to This Is Stina Nordenstam, which I only managed to find just after The World Is Saved was released, and which sounded very slight in comparison initially. I now fairly love it. But... The World Is Saved is truly exceptional. Especially "Morning Belongs to the Night"!

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 5 November 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

'This Is' is still my fave by a long ways. 'The World is Saved' is ok, but doesn't hit me quite as much.

― I.M. (I.M.), Saturday, 5 November 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

note cold snap in england

It was 18 C here on Wednesday, it's been unusually mild for this time of year.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Saturday, 5 November 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

is one of her tracks playing in a current Orange phone advert? if so what's the track?

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 6 November 2005 03:23 (twenty years ago)

joanna newsom "this side of the blue"? her singing on that songs a lot more er restrained than usual

― zappi (joni), Sunday, 6 November 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

thanks zappi. i've never heard Newsom.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 6 November 2005 03:41 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Listening to 'People Are Strange' right now; I forget how gorgeous the tempo and pacing is on this album. A wonderfully warm sound, too. 'Like A Swallow', 'Came so Far for Beauty' and especially 'Reason to Believe stand out for me.

― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 31 December 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

I think this is her most underrated album, and from time to time I think of it as her best. "Reason to Believe" and "I Dream of Jeannie" are two of the most gorgeous things she's ever produced. It's a less fragile record than And she closed her eyes and seems better-constructed than Dynamite. And few albums can touch it for sheer imaginative deconstruction of other people's songs.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Saturday, 31 December 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

nine months pass...

C-90.

And she closed her eyes
Another Story Girl
Clothe Yourself for the Wind
Crime
Dynamite
First Day in Spring
Get On With Your Life
Greetings from the Old World
His Song (...or at least the first 2:00)
I Dream of Jeannie
Keen Yellow Planet
Little Star
Memories of a Color
Murder in Mairyland Park
Now When I See You
People Are Strange
Proposal
Purple Rain
Reason to Believe
So Lee
Stations
Trainsurfing
When Debbie's Back from Texas
Winter Killing

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Monday, 2 October 2006 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

Word is that a new album is expected in 2007.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 04:35 (nineteen years ago)

possibly with "as heard on the washing machine ad" all over it.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

I can't remember the last time I saw a washing machine ad.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

three months pass...

Finally listening to The World is Saved. That took me long enough.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 4 January 2007 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

You're such a Ned.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 4 January 2007 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

it's so right that it seems this thread is always bumped every winter!

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Thursday, 4 January 2007 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

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