astrid williamson plugs in on new album

Fourth solo release promises rockier songs

Hailing as she does from the former Viking colony of Shetland, the title of Astrid Williamson’s upcoming fourth solo album could be taken to refer to her fiery ancestry alone, but Here Come The Vikings is also a pointed nod to the album’s more aggressive musical direction. Out on June 8th through One Little Indian, the self-produced 10-track album is a muscular riposte to all who would label her a whimsical folkie on the basis of 2006’s Day Of The Lone Wolf. “I was losing 10 bpm every album,” she explains, “so I thought I’d plug in and sort things out.”

Harking back to the rockier highlights of her work with Goya Dress in the mid-’90s, songs like ‘Shut Your Mouth’ and ‘Slake’ display an almost forgotten side to her songwriting, while the piano-based ‘Pinned’ and sultry ballad ‘How You Take My Breath Away’ show that Astrid hasn’t lost her touch with the slowies. And anyone seeking a bit of genuine weirdness need look no further than the album’s soaring centrepiece ‘Crashing Minis’, utilising a surreal twist on the relationship-as-car-crash metaphor to get her message across.

Guests include jazz trumpeter Guy Barker, Belle & Sebastian cellist Sarah Wilson, violinist/violist Ruth Gottlieb and Oskar’s synth-wizard Nick Powell.

 

Here Come The Vikings
01 Store
02 Sing The Body Electric
03 Shut Your Mouth
04 How You Take My Breath Away
05 Crashing Minis
06 Falling Down
07 Pinned
08 Slake
09  Eve
10 The Stars Are Beautiful

Alan Pedder

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: alan pedder, astrid williamson, goya dress, news

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