Originally released in October to her PledgeMusic supporters, Kate Havnevik‘s new album, YOU, popped up for the consumption of the general music-buying public last month.
The follow-up to the Norwegian singer-songwriter’s 2006 debut, Melankton, took some time to come to full fruition. Nearly half of the tracks on YOU first appeared on ME, an EP Havnevik released in 2009 and sold exclusively via her website. One of those songs, the buoyant “Show Me Love,” was issued as a single and subsequently remixed last fall.
Dribs and drabs aside — de rigueur for a DIY artist in the 21st century — the seemingly interminable wait Havnevik’s fans endured for YOU was worth it. Produced and written with Guy Sigsworth (Frou Frou, Björk, Alanis Morissettte), who similarly contributed to several tracks on Melantkon, Havnevik’s new album remains rooted in electronic sounds though the tempo is much more varied than her debut.
“When I started writing this album, I wanted it to be faster and more energetic than what I’d done before,” says Havnevik. “I wanted more guitars and more drums, and more pace, basically. I do feel I managed to make quite a varied album. It goes from electronic to guitar-y to quite sort of string-y epic to very happy-sweet to quite minimilistic and sad.”
Havnevik’s sweet, often ethereal voice is wonderfully served by Sigsworth’s signature multi-layered style and exotic instrumentation, whether delicately framed (“Think Again,” “Tears In Rain”), lushly supported (“Castaway”), or totally pop (“Show Me Love,” “Happy Sad”). Because of the shifting sonic textures and range of emotional underpinnings, YOU is a delight from start to end.
“Mouth 2 Mouth” is the first official single from YOU, a song about the lengths (and literal depths) we go to hold onto the one we love. Sigsworth’s production on the track is phenomenal, approximating lapping waves along the beach and immersing us in an underwater world. It’s the most Björk-like of the bunch, with Havnevik’s phrasing like that of our favorite Icelandic pixie:
Perhaps to address the delay that followed in Melankton‘s wake, Havnevik plans to release a companion album to YOU later this year, fittingly titled AND I.
Purchase Kate Havnevik – YOU via iTunes, Amazon MP3. And grab a free download of the Milosh Remix of “Mouth 2 Mouth” via SoundCloud.
