Oh Land - Oh Land, a review

In the way of Scandinavian popstars we haven't exactly been neglected in the past few years. Robyn, Lykke Li and Jens Lekmann have all come along and provided some of the genre's finest recent albums and tracks, suggesting there's something more in Sweden than excellent healthcare, beautiful women and flat-pack furniture (it sounds like a haven. I must go there some day.)

However, Oh Land is Danish. So why I wrote that above I'm not really sure. Having worked on her follow-up to the much-unnoticed (and generally quite poor) 2008 record 'Fauna' with Pharrell Williams and Dan Carey, a man who's mixed and produced for Franz Ferdinand, Sia and La Roux, she's back with a stronger team and greater potential to launch into a pretty dense and hard-fought pop competition.

Openers 'Break the Chain' and 'Perfection' are pretty flawless in terms of the production; the latter indulging us with harps and strings to kick things off luxuriously, the former a perfect pitch at the tense melodrama. But it's the single 'Son of a Gun' that's been gaining attention for the singer, having amassed an impressive 8 million views on YouTube with a music video full to the brim with quirky dance moves, caves and light fields that remind of that scene from the Prestige. The track is certainly the strongest and catchiest of the album.


'Voodoo' is an acidically sweet electrical track, with more beeps than a malfunctioning C3PO, an unusual precursor to 'Lean' which is all tense sweeping strings and a miniscule drum rhythm - a more ethereal experience with a slight resemblance of a James Bond theme. There's then a twilit nursery rhyme vibe to 'Wolf & I' with an underlying rapid drum rhythm - by this stage it's almost worryingly slick and faultless.

'Human' is very reminiscent of a Paloma Faith track - her voice sounding quite similar aside, it's that same opulence and reverence towards the melodramatic and theatrical side of music, complete with soulful violins and self-deprecating lyrics ("you show me how imperfect I can be"). There's then a return to the cuteness with 'White Nights', complete with chirpy almost glockenspiel-like tunes and a pretty much perfect pop chorus.


'Helicopter' is a step towards the more sugary-sweet electronics, and probably the first filler track - it never really goes anywhere and is a shade too self-indulgent. 'We Turn It Up' meanwhile has a chanted chorus hook that's slightly similar to pop efforts by Gwen Stefani or Shakira, and is a quite solid track. The album then finishes with 'Rainbow', a pretty dismal closr that suggests no pot of gold.

So as a record it's pretty consistent and doesn't really contain any howlers (which you can rarely say of mainstream popstars). However, that I think could be its downfall. It's so middle-of-the-road and inoffensive that it doesn't take risks, and there are no real outstanding moments so you'd have to be an alternative pop fan to really get invested in this record.

Oh, Alphabeat. There's a Danish one.

Rating: 6/10
Highlights: White Nights, Sun of a Gun, We Turn It Up, Lean
Avoid: Rainbow, Helicopter