Gripping debut from Norwegian singer/songwriter
Silje Nes’ low-key but ultimately gripping debut album is equal parts cute forest elf, kooky CocoRosie and prowling Cat Power. It’s a home-recorded disc, and one can imagine the young Norwegian—who grew up in Leikanger, where the climate is mild, fruit trees thrive and splashes from the Kvinna waterfall produce rainbows in the summer—strolling along her stream of consciousness, adding flickers of melodica, glockenspiel, cello or whatever instrument suited her at the moment. Nes’ music is less a genre than a mood: sometimes haunted, and other times slinky. “Bright Night Morning” and “Melt” are echo-y Americana, all wind-chapped barns and harvest moons, while “Giant Disguise” and “Dizzy Street” are pure make-out songs. This won’t all register on first listen; Nes takes subtlety seriously. But trust us, hissing fauna—she is the destroyer.