The Practice of Love - Jenny Hval: Review
is a Norwegian singer-songwriter who dropped her breakout record Innocence Is Kinky in 2013 to critical acclaim, citing her bold spoken word style and unrelenting female sexuality as refreshing qualities. Since then she has continued to receive critical acclaim for records like Apocalypse, Girl and Blood Bitch as well as a very well received EP last year. As her style continues to evolve musically and thematically from record to record it is difficult to predict what Jenny will do next, but expectations are high for her first studio album in three years.
Review By Lavender:
I am a huge fan of Jenny Hval and have been for about as long as she has been around. While I missed Viscera in 2011 I was around for Innocence Is Kinky and I liked it a whole lot, and still do to this day. 2015's Apocalypse, Girl was one of her most popular and critically acclaimed records and while I enjoyed it quite a bit and was happy for her to receive some recognition I didn't really see it as quite as consistent as Innocence. I was back on her side compared to the critics the very next year when she released Blood Bitch a tightly conceptual dark and brooding exploration of feminine sexuality, and also vampires. After releasing one of my favorite EP's of the year last year with The Long Sleep and its killer lead single Spells she turned around and dropped a number of great singles earlier this year leading up to the record.
The era got off to an absolutely excellent start with Ashes To Ashes which not only features brilliant songwriting but an absolutely masterful performance from Jenny herself who holds absolutely nothing back in her lyrics or performance. The trails of percussion that the track is built around and the huge synths that soar over the hook make for a brilliant listen and once again she starts an era off with an absolutely killer lead single. High Alice is another flashy instrumental with some dynamic keys and a pretty dramatic build for a track that doesn't make any drastic changes to its instrumental. Jenny sings a passionate soaring hook in between stepping back into some dramatic spoken word passages, musically the song is up tempo for her standards but she makes great use of it for another solid single. The final single was Accident another excellent song with classic Jenny Hval understated vocals that are so insatiably catchy. The songwritng is fantastic and the instrumental blends some of her more classical influences with a driving house beat and an ascending synth line that makes for a really unique but well fitting instrumental palette.
After getting off to a great start with the singles there are a number of tracks here that carry on in line. Lions is a fantastic spoken word/synth pop introductory cut with bouncy driving keys and some surprisingly grand vocals. Jenny is great singing lead and background over one of the more frontal instrumentals of her career which makes the song an exciting start to the record. The record also ends off on a pretty sharp pair of tracks starting with Six Red Cannas is a great tune with a tight progression wrapped around some amazing electronic manipulations and drum machine percussion that sees Jenny once again pulling from house music. The song feels like a zany cerebral psychedelic dance odyssey from the future and I'm living for it. Ordinary is the closing song that is much more in line with Jenny's typical sound as a mostly spoken closer with a touch of very soft and intimate singing. The instrumental is highlighted with a series of claps of all things but I actually really enjoy it. The music really takes off in the second half and the track gets amazingly dynamic where the soft vocals sit so pillowy on top of the swirling instrumentation in a way that is absolutely articulate and totally makes sense as the records closing moment.
The Practice Of Love is a busy spoken word collage that reminds me a lot of Playing Possum from Earl Sweatshirt's Some Rap Songs. While the track is obviously not the most musically compelling I still think it is a pretty valuable moment on the record and both of the women speaking are saying pretty compelling and interesting things. The second woman who I believe is Laura Jean tells a really compelling story about understanding her place within the world that I really enjoy but her tone is so conversational rather than the musical approach often executed by more experienced spoken word artists and it makes the song a little bit more of a diversion on the record than it could have been.
The only song that I properly don't love on the record is Thumbsucker which features some doubled up singing on the hook that I'm not a huge fan of. The spoken word passages and distant sax instrumental give the track some great moments that would have fit in comfortably on The Love Sleep EP last year. The second half of the track is a huge improvement from the first and ultimately I do think it should be listened to withing the context of the album because it does have something to add, but it is also the records weakest moment.
Once again Jenny Hval has released a fantastic record that simultaneously honors the musical style she's made her name off of, while also pushing it to new heights and interpolating new sounds. The excellent addition of house music, anthemic synthesizer work and guests vocalists refreshingly performing with their own unique styles The Practice Of Love is one of the tightest records I've heard all year. With under 40 minutes of material Jenny consistently treats listeners to a short but very sweet series of songs that make up one of the better chamber pop records I've heard from anyone not named Julia Holter the past few years, and one of the best records of her career so far, it's a fantastic listen. 8.5/10
For more dreamy indie music check out my review of Thom Yorke's Anima here
