Susanne Sundfør - "Ten Love Songs"

Not sure it's fair to disregard festival concerts as a whole, have been to many fantastic festival shows and sometimes find myself wishing a club concert was a festival one (if for instance crowd is a bit dead)

But sure Sundfør would have been better in other surroundings

I guess the question is what is the ultimate live setup. When she started out it was just her and the piano. This album dictates something different. I thought she was good at Øya with a big old band and pop antics, she's gotten a lot better at than than the shy earlier performances I think. There's something to be said for a claustrophobic, miminalist setting for parts of her discography, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGcC0ev7Gcs

Nighttime or indoors probably a prerequisite anyways.

This is now my second favourite album ever by the way.

― boxedjoy, Wednesday, October 21, 2015 8:39 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ This surely be one of the only times I've read a statement such as this about a recently released record that doesn't sound like hyperbole. I can totally understand why this would become an instant all-time favourite for many, and not many records achieve that feat. It's definitely one of the best of the decade so far.

When 'Delirious' kicks in after 'Memorial' = genius piece of sequencing.

Yeah, I'd have no problem putting this in my top 20 albums ever at this point. I just start thinking about it and I need to put it on instantly. Everything about it is so perfect.

What I really want to know is, what is Boxedjoy's first favourite album of all time.

What I really want to know is, what is Boxedjoy's first favourite album of all time.

iirc it's Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em

I can see that.

i'll put money on it being silent shout

I could see it being No Way Down by Air France.

What I really want to know is, what is Boxedjoy's first favourite album of all time.
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 24 October 2015 02:30 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Read the thread ;) But yeah, I'd probably find a spot for this in an all time top 20 right now. Was also never really much doubt that it would be my album of the year from the 2nd or 3rd time I gave it a spin. It inhabits my brain daily.

"No Way Down" is a good guess, to be fair xp

Oh yeah, sorry I totally missed that. I was about to take up that bet with dynamicinterface and everything.

Silent Shout is a fine choice, but right now I think Ten Love Songs is better record.

I am flabbergasted by this thread. I don't get the love for this album at all. To me it seems average mainstream contemporary shite. People why don't you listen to the new Chills album which is phantastic. this one is a waste of time. her voice is so uninteresting. I won't convince anyone here, i know but i had to write this.

I love how much you actually hate music and continue year after year to pretend you don't on some sketchy technicality.

If tracks like 'Memorial' are average mainstream contemporary shite, then I need to start listening to more average mainstream contemporary shite!

I really don't get anyone using "mainstream" and "contemporary" as signifiers of negative value in 2015 tbh

Like I can understand finding this an intimidating edifice or her voice affected or whatever but I think "oh this sounds like pop music" is not only an inaccurate criticism of this album but an unworthy criticism of any music as a whole

unless ~feelings~ are mainstream and passé in which case fuck humanity forever tbh would rather feel alive with this album and Taylor Swift and whatever

I've listened to this album so much I don't really want to hear it anymore - can't remember the last time this happened to me. Usually I move on to the next thing way before burnout, even with albums I really like.

same, I overplayed it and I don't want to listen to it for a while. But it'll still probably be my number one record this year, nothing else I've liked has really come close in ambition and audacity.

So irritated with myself. I committed to going to another show in Tues, forgetting it was SS at Koko, and I've still not seen her. Told the publicist for the other act that I was missing the maker of the album of the year, so her act really better be very good indeed. I don't think she wanted to be told that.

you're not going?? i'd JUST decided to opt for susanne over lady leshurr but i don't think i know anyone irl who loves her...

I love how much you actually hate music and continue year after year to pretend you don't on some sketchy technicality.

e.g. the latest albums by destroyer, julia holter, the apartments (my fave this year), the chills, fraser anderson, d'angelo, ghostpoet, laura marling, real estate, ryan adams, sufjan stevens etc. etc.

i like country and rap music

I only like music on TV

I'm still nowhere near bored of this album, and don't really expect to be tired of it in the near future at least. Granted, I don't seem to be hammering it as hard as some others are, which I guess has helped to retain its freshness.

Show last night was compelling, or what I caught of it was. (What kind of hick, kale-eating, muesli-bothering town forces venues to wind up their gigs by 9.50pm sharp?) Thankfully I got there in time to hear "Fade Away".

Sound was great, her backing band is excellent, and the whole presentation was spot on. I'm still not completely sold on the album but this sure helped.

SO AMAZING

:(

koko remains the worst gig venue in london though

On the bright side, Lex, you weren't having to watch a sub-Mumfords banjo band instead.

:(((((((

i imagine you spent the gig looking desperately for a window to jump through so you could run to koko

once i was in a spot where i could see more than the top of susanne's head it was pretty wonderful... "insects" live was probably the most whoa moment

Genuinely wish I understood what it is about this album that has people in such raptures, gonna give it another go today.

unbelievable that "delirious" hasn't been a single yet

apparently radio refuse to touch her with a bargepole, which makes all too much sense to me and just makes me wonder how, in 2015, is radio still permitted to be such an important gatekeeper

xp it took me a few listens (as evidenced by my first posts itt, lol) - it's very overwhelming initially but once my brain began to make sense of it there was no going back

i've finally gone back to the rest of her discography, you can definitely see the evolution of her sound building up towards this from relatively straightforward beginnings

As someone who loves this album but has not heard anything else she's done, is it worth checking out the earlier albums?

(As I thought there was quite a difference between this one and her previous output)

Yes it\s worth it

She performed an earlier piano version of Memorial more than four(!) years ago on this little live thing (and she says she 'finished' the song that morning)

4:20 in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_EN83Fu12o

I decided to take the advice I've been giving people wrt the Miguel album (ie start at track four and then see if it works for you). Decided to start this one at Fade Away and it feels like a different album without the blustery first couple of songs putting me in the wrong mood.

Would I like this? (Not asked that in ages.)

I would think so.

I like "Accelerate," so I'm dipping in.

Funny, this album and the Miguel album are jostling for similar placement toward the top of my year-end list, and the two albums are linked in my mind in a vague way I can't quite explain yet. Maybe it's just b/c they each have a similar confidence/openness, and b/c they do cycle through so many moods, but I think it's something more than that, too

I'm getting the same feeling seeing it up there next to Dawn Richard and Angel Haze; I think I'll always gravitate towards formally ambitious, emotionally cathartic storms of albums

I love this album, BUT...

The long instrumental interlude in "Memorial" spoils that track for me. I don't mind the idea of it, of creating this open space in the middle of the album. And maybe the episodic construction is meant to reflect episodes in the lost soldier's life, or different stages of grief, or who knows?

Anyway, what bothers me is the execution in terms of composing and arranging. As the interlude unfolds, it repeatedly stumbles. Now Sundfor (I assume it's her) is noodling around on the piano over the harmonies of the chorus. Now she has abandoned those harmonies and seems to reaching for, but not quite grasping, something in the vein of a Mozart piano concerto. When the vocals return, I can't help thinking, "Thank goodness THAT is over!"

Hah, that's the bit that sold me.

Fair enough, sometimes I can't turn off my classical-music ears/expectations.

"memorial" was the first thing i heard from this record and it elicited an immediate "holy fucking shit" from me

btw this is a great breakup record which I can unfortunately report from personal experience

sorry for your personal circumstances but I can only imagine how much better this would sound in the required emotional state to really appreciate