Selvutsletter - Lost Girls: Review

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Lost Girls

is a collaborative project between Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval and collaborator Havard Volden. After an EP released years ago, the duo made their formal debut in 2021 with Menneskekollektivet in 2021. Selvutsletter is a follow-up focused on shorter, more conventionally presented songs than their more compositionally abstract debut. 

Review by Lav: 

Very few artists keep their fans fed like Jenny Hval. I've often said that. not just because Hval releases music often but because it's always so good. Coming off of her excellent 2019 album The Practice Of Love I enjoyed the first Lost Girls album quite a bit. She followed it up last year with a solid solo album in Classic Objects. Even though I think the project is just okay within the wider scope of her very impressive discography, it featured the incredible track Year Of Love which went on to be my single of the year for 2022. Now once again Jenny Hval is back with a second Lost Girls album. Unfortunately, I'm even more mixed on this than her last two projects.

That started with the lead single Ruins which certainly has a dark tone and demeanor that isn't exactly representative of the album as a whole. While the album has sonic moments I think are worthwhile I don't particularly love the refrains or the lyrical content and as a result, very few individual moments really stick out to me. 

Speaking of moments that fail to stick with me the second half of the album has some of the most forgettable songs I've heard from Jenny in a while. The better example is World On Fire which just slides in and immediately out of my brain pretty much every time I listen to it no matter how much I dig through its details. Closing track Seawhite doesn't exactly follow that same process. It is the most sparse track on the album compositionally and spacious in the way it deploys its synth drones and spread out refrains. I appreciate the patience but I don't really find it as compelling as some of the similar indulgences I've heard Jenny make in the past. 

Thankfully, the album had a second single that I liked a LOT more. With The Other Hand has great percussion and when Jenny cuts through all of it with her shimmering hook it's probably the most wonderful moment on Selvutsletter. The track works in tandem with Timed Intervals to get the album started on a positive note. Intervals has this fluttering little drum machine in the background and a vocal performance that feels like vintage Jenny. Though the moments where she strains her voice feel like a very unnecessary break from the poise of the song, I do think it rallies with a wonderful final minute. 

Speaking of vintage Jenny, June 1996 also feels like a bit of a throwback in the moments where it conjures very direct and literal storytelling. It has an instrumental that develops in a really compelling way too with a surprising but incredibly welcome of strings and drum machine partway through. Jeg Slutter Meg Selv is similarly impressive in how it progresses. Jenny also delivers a fantastic vocal performance punctuating the song's most dramatic moments. I wish I could find an English translation of the lyrics because I'm guessing from the title alone that they're thematically important, but it's something I'll just have to look out for going forward. 

It won't surprise anyone to know that my favorite of the deep cuts is Re-Entering The City, the most Julia Holter-channeling song on the album. The track works really well and I love her extremely gentle vocalizations combined with the ambient waves of synths hovering away in the background. It definitely represents the emotional high point of the project and was an absolute treat to listen to every time.

Jenny Hval isn't quite on her A-game on Selvutsletter, To that end her and Havard Volden have even impressed me more than this as a duo with their debut album. But for an artist that I've dished out a LOT of praise to over the years I can't help but see exactly what Jenny was intending to do here. The shift to more conventional pop structures and the interpolation of more accessible pop hooks does work sometimes and occasionally spawns huge highlights. But when push comes to shove I think the album is just a bit more inconsistent than I've come to expect from Jenny and her various side projects. 6.5/10


For more singer-songwriter check out my review of Susanne Sundfor's blomi

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