FEATURE:
Second Spin
Nina Persson – Animal Heart
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THERE are a few reasons…
why I want to feature the brilliant Nina Persson. Aside from her being a legend, she has featured alongside James Yorkston, and The Second Hand Orchestra on the beautiful new album, The Great White Sea Eagle. Her voice is so gorgeous and full of expression and passion. I have never heard Persson sing like this before. Such a rich and soulful vocal, the album is more Folk-based than anything she has done before. Persson has always had an amazing voice, but I think this album brings out layers and textures that were undiscovered until now. I also wanted to feature Persson, because I have been thinking about her band, The Cardigans. The Swedish group were one of my favourites growing up, and one of their best albums, Gran Turismo, was released in 1998. It turns twenty-five in October. 2005’s Super Extra Gravity is their latest album, and I am not sure whether they will record together again. That would be a shame if true, as she is such a captivating lead. What would be more tragic if Nina Persson did not release a second solo album. Her only to date, Animal Heart, was released on 29th January, 2014. Ahead of its ninth anniversary, I wanted to spin it in a new light. I would recommend this interview, where Persson spoke about creating Animal Heart. Not all reviews were positive, and I think it deserves a lot better than it was afforded. With songs written by Eric D. Johnson, Nathan Larson and Nina Persson, Animal Heart has plenty to love about it!
Maybe there was expectation that Persson’s solo album would resemble early Cardigans or something like that. Stepping out on her own, what we have is an often dazzling solo album with many highlights. I will bring in a couple of positive reviews before I wrap things up. I guess there was an inevitability that Nina Persson would record a solo album after such a gap following The Cardigans’ final (?) album. This is what AllMusic observed in their review:
“On Animal Heart, Nina Persson does everything an artist with a career as lengthy and varied as hers could, and should, do on a solo debut album. Arriving five years after the last A Camp album and nine years after the last Cardigans album, these songs blend the countrified reflection of her former project and the sparkling pop of the latter, presenting it all with a much more overtly personal outlook than Persson has ever presented before. That her voice has an endearingly weathered quality here, with a rasp and vibrato that humanize the almost too-perfectly crystalline tone she had in the '90s and 2000s, only adds to Animal Heart's confessional bent and gives much-needed grit to vulnerable yet strong songs like "Catch Me Crying" and "Burning Bridges for Fuel." However, she saves the traditional singer/songwriter piano balladry for last, closing the album with the beautifully intimate "This Is Heavy Metal," where she muses, "Still a little shaken/From pieces that were taken/I wonder if they ever were mine." Instead, she ponders the fine line between domestic bliss and claustrophobia on the deceptively mellow "Dreaming of Houses" and "Clip Your Wings," and delivers emotionally ambivalent electro-pop on the title track and "Food for the Beast," one of the most urgent-sounding songs Persson has recorded with any of her projects. Sometimes the mood threatens to become a little too navel-gazing, but Persson's light touch -- exemplified by the charming meditation on loss "Forgot to Tell You" and "The Grand Destruction Game," a playfully philosophical look at a long list of star-crossed love affairs -- ultimately makes these songs winning. Neither a denial nor a rehash of Persson's past, Animal Heart is a welcome reflection of her changing life and art”.
When it came to mixed reviews, some said the songs are samey and take no risks. Maybe too accessible and predictable. For such a major and clear talent, maybe there was a feeling that more could have come from Animal Heart. Perhaps it is too wistful and slight so that it does not linger in the mind. This is what Pitchfork wrote in their review:
“Even discounting Nina Persson’s scattered covers and one-offs, the Cardigans’ move toward singer-songwriterly maturity on Long Gone Before Daylight was a solo effort in spirit if not in personnel. And Persson’s two albums as A Camp—the first with the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and the second with husband Nathan Larson—were solo in everything but the name. While the Cardigans were never all about Persson, she was the major draw; she got pegged as a heroine of coldhearted warm pop: summery melodies whose sun rays just might skewer anyone who basks. She's won countless devotees, from the wordy-sweet Swedish indie acts for whom the Cardigans are canon to those who knew the band from soft-rock radio and Romeo + Juliet. Entire swaths of music are cut from Persson’s cloth; she is a known quantity.
For better or worse, this lets Persson get away with an album like Animal Heart, one that isn’t much of a statement. She has so many strengths to coast on. Her voice still frays so beguilingly well at the end of a phrase. She still has a way with production filigrees, with letting a bridge dissolve into dreamy guitar licks or tucking a watch-this sparkle beneath a verse and then a cruel barb beneath the line. And she still knows how to write a great chorus. The title track here stands among her best, a gorgeous continuous springtime melt of an indie-pop song with a subtle, urgent energy. It’s the most straightforward pleasure on an album more concerned with Persson’s tricksy songwriting. “Catch Me Crying” is like a torch song illuminated by firefly lights and surprisingly busy: over-keeled melodies, over-anxious percussion and synths, over-ragged vocals, and far too much repetition for “you’ll never catch me crying for you—again” to read as anything but ironic. “Forgot to Tell You” is the same tack from the opposite approach: a Sunday kind of breakup song, pleasant like an afternoon on the porch; everything’s so nice-nice, you hardly notice she’s shrugged the poor guy off with “so I might just forget about you now” then slunk away with a smile”.
I do think that Persson should record another solo album. Maybe more similar to what she has released with James Yorkston, I think she could come back with a triumphant album that is more acclaimed that her first (though, technically, I guess it is not her debut solo album). Many missed the brilliance that does come from Animal Heart. Whilst some songs do sound similar, and there is a bit of an issue with tracks being sequenced in the wrong order, it is a consistent listen that showcased Persson’s very obvious vocal and songwriting strengths. This is what Goldmine said about the brilliant Animal Heart:
“Featuring Persson’s smooth-as-silk vocals front and center at the top of the mix, Animal Heart is a tour de force that concentrates on relationships both good and bad. It’s a very personal album but also highly accessible. It’s not power-pop oriented, like a lot of The Cardigans’ best songs are. Animal Heart is a bit of a grower, and it might take more than one listen for the album to get under your skin. But when it does, it stays there.
Persson wrote the album with her husband Nathan Larson (her partner in the side project A Camp) and Eric D. Johnson of The Shins. (Joan Wasser collaborated on the track “Food For The Beast.”)
Kicking off with the title track, the album gets off to a rousing start. “Animal Heart,” the album’s first single, is a fantastic keyboard-and-bass-driven track that features Persson’s vocals prominently. It is a very visual song that paints a vivid picture of a relationship, of looking for a place where she and her partner can be happy.
All of the tracks on the album seem to be very well thought out. There isn’t one track on the album that can be considered filler. “Burning Bridges For Fuel” is a beautiful, evocative song that seems to float along. “Dreaming Of Houses” features Persson going over the end of a relationship and trying to make sense of where it went wrong. In “Clip Your Wings,” Persson tells her partner “You can go if you want to go” while also saying that she’s not looking to crush his ambition just that she wants more of a say in their future plans. On the terrific “Food For The Beast,” Persson mulls over an on-and-off relationship to a dance beat. “Forgot To Tell You” is an ethereal song about being unhappy in a relationship and deciding to leave. “Catch Me Crying” deals with being let down repeatedly and coming to the realization that your partner is not suited for you. “Silver” is an upbeat song about picking your partner up when they are down.
The album concludes with the stunning track “This Is Heavy Metal,” a spare and beautiful song that features piano and Persson’s perfect vocals.
With Animal Heart, Persson has managed to carve out an identity that is distinct and different from her persona as the lead vocalist of The Cardigans. The album overall is about a journey of self-discovery. And one of the things that the listener discovers along the way is that Persson is a massive talent as a solo act. I look forward to hearing her future solo endeavors”.
I am a massive fan of Nina Persson, and I think that people should spend some quality time with Animal Heart. I think we will hear more music from Persson, but what form that takes is anyone’s guess. Maybe the ship has sailed on The Cardigans, but perhaps there will be anniversary gigs or special releases. What I do know is that there is a demand for more solo material from the Swedish goddess. Let’s hope that this is fulfilled…
THIS year.