Artist: Annika Norlin
Viewing posts
46-60 out of
62
8
Monto Water Rats is pretty packed tonight. There are four bands on the bill, but I only watched the last two. First out is Maia Hirasawa who started out as (and still is, I think) a member of Hello Saferide's touring band, but who has now started conquering the Swedish airwaves by herself with her sunshine pop. It's melodic and pleasant. Hello Saferide are equally melodic, but somewhat less pleasant. Annika Norlin (aka Hello Saferide) is not feeling very well, and she tells us that she's kept quiet all day just so she can sing for us. God bless her! She has also been drinking olive oil throughout the day, and even does so onstage (this is the cause of the the unpleasantness). Sometimes the rock'n'roll life can be truly odd, and tough. I'd rather bite the head of a bat than drink olive oil. Oily drinks or vocal problems doesn't stop Annika from putting on a great show though, and she's got the audience transfixed from the start. As an encore she plays "The quiz" which I haven't heard live before - it was a thoroughly enjoyable first experience. Expect to hear more from Hello Saferide and Maia Hirasawa in the future, they're both charming and write very infectious songs.
- Simon Tagestam
Pitchfork reviews Säkert!, the Swedish-language project of Annika Norlin/Hello Saferide: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/42664-skert
If you are looking to purchase said CD, it's currently out of stock, but new copies should be on the way.
Säkert! (aka Annika Norlin/Hello Saferide) will release her new single "Allt som är ditt" on May 2. That might actually be my favorite song on the record - reminds me a lot of Johndoe. Look for her to play the Parklife tour in Sweden this summer.
Billie the Vision and the Dancers have two songs from their new album posted on myspace, including one featuring Annika Norlin aka Hello Saferide: http://www.myspace.com/billiethevisionandthedancers
10
And I found this girl. She took the stage alone, armed only with a great big acoustic guitar that seemed to dwarf her tiny frame. Then she opened her mouth and whispered out her first song, and the entire crowd went silent in awe. Her name was Maia Hirasawa, and until then she had been known to most as 'that other girl in Hello Saferide'. No longer. That November night in Glasgow she truly stepped out from the shadows and demanded attention. Hopefully this album will do the same to a much larger audience. Like her live performance, she eases us in slowly, with a breathy ballad that showcases her angelic voice superbly. She doesn't need a backing band or fancy production to massage her music – the girl sighs and boys swoon. It all seems so unbelievably effortless. And simple. Yet listen closely, and you'll hear the same type of smart, snappy lyrics that make her friend Annika Norlin so likeable. There are a lot of love songs on this album, but they're not old and schmaltzy. On the contrary, they're modern and moving, even featuring Myspace in the stellar "Mattis and Maia". Critics are already falling over themselves with praise for feel-good single "And I found this boy", and with good reason. Maia is possibly THE find of the year. Have a listen and you may soon find yourself rushing to join her swelling army of fans.
- Stacey Shackford
It was never a matter of if I was going to post something from Säkert!, the Swedish-language project of Annika Norlin aka Hello Saferide, only a matter of when. Naturally, I am predisposed to enjoy the record - how could I not? I'm obviously a big enough fan of Hello Saferide that I decided it was worth a couple thousand dollars to press her debut album on vinyl and promote it in the US. Factor in that Annika is backed on the record by some of Umeå's best musicians and I'm sold before I've heard a note. It's no secret that I hold Norrland's capital city near and dear to my heart - my label's first release was from KVLR, another band from that same city. So what do you get when you have Henrik Oja from The Spacious Mind plus Mats Hammarström and Daniel Berglund from Isolation Years all making music together? Hopefully you've heard the brilliant debut single "Vi kommer att dö samtidigt" already; if not please recitify that right away. Um, can you say pop hit of the year? It's good enough that it's already inspired an English cover version from The Animal Five. I'm a bit torn on which track is the runner-up - it was either "Allt som är ditt" or today's mp3 post "Sanningsdan". The former is a fantastic song, but it's also a bit more downbeat (it reminds me a lot of something from Johndoe's "Dødvinkel", one of my favorite albums from 2006), so I've gone with the latter. It's a duet with Martin Hanberg of Vapnet and it practically stands up and demands a video treatment. It also demands repeat plays with the way it stops, restarts and fades out. So infectious! I wish I could tell you what it's about, but I can't so I won't. Just enjoy the song.
Buy the self-titled album: [click here]
Säkert! - Sanningsdan (ft. Martin Hanberg)
The video for the new Säkert! single "Vi kommer att dö samtidigt" is now online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZX1GXeE4mg
Säkert! is the Swedish-language project of Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide).
The release of Annika Norlin's (Hello Saferide) Swedish language project Säkert! has been moved up to February 7.
Annika Norlin, someone who you might know better as Hello Saferide, is working on a new Swedish-language musical project: http://sakert.blogspot.com/
The first single "Vi kommer att dö samtidigt" comes out January 31 and the self-titled album follows on February 21.
Happy holidays everyone. I'm going to take some time this week to take a second look at a couple of the honorable mentions from my top 10 list. First, let's revisit Hello Saferide. My first impression with this record was tainted by hype. It's not that I didn't enjoy "Introducing..." when I first heard it, I was just surprised that so many people were getting excited about a nice girl folksinger. Now that I've had more time to let Annika Norlin's copious charms sink in, I appreciate the album much, much more. It comes down to this: Annika has a lovely voice and is a good songwriter and that's enough. Even further, this is an album that will still sound just as good five or ten years down the road. It doesn't stray from convention because it doesn't need to. The classic formula still works fine.
Happy holidays everyone. I'm going to take some time this week to take a second look at a couple of the honorable mentions from my top 10 list. First, let's revisit Hello Saferide. My first impression with this record was tainted by hype. It's not that I didn't enjoy "Introducing..." when I first heard it, I was just surprised that so many people were getting excited about a nice girl folksinger. Now that I've had more time to let Annika Norlin's copious charms sink in, I appreciate the album much, much more. It comes down to this: Annika has a lovely voice and is a good songwriter and that's enough. Even further, this is an album that will still sound just as good five or ten years down the road. It doesn't stray from convention because it doesn't need to. The classic formula still works fine.
Hello Saferide - Nothing like you
The hype around Hello Saferide really surprises me. Truth be told, I really shouldn't be all that surprised: cute girl, good voice, clever songs - what's not to like? That's a fairly standard formula for success right there. Actually, what gets me about Hello Saferide is something that Simon touches upon in his review. Compared to the world of interesting female singer/songwriters out there, Annika Norlin is just a plain ol' folkie. Simon seems to find that disappointing, but I'm totally okay with it. To be perfectly frank, I think a lot of those so-called more "challenging" artists just aren't very good (I won't name names today, sorry). But why are the indie kids so excited? I don't get it. Next thing you know, everyone's gonna be moving beyond dabbling in semi-hip stuff like Suzanne Vega to digging through Christine Lavin's discography. Who knows?
Maia Hirasawa