Sweden, in the last decade, has become somewhat known for off-kilter pop music. From indie-electro-pop darlings The Knife through to the current day stylings of Robyn and Lykke Li, the Swedes have a talent for taking the standard, swirling it around a little and popping it out a little left of its original centre. Into that mix you could perhaps also throw indie-rock trio (and occasional NME favourites) Peter, Bjorn and John – and it is with bass and keyboardist Bjorn Yttling that Sarah Blasko’s latest story begins, with Blasko enlisting Yttling as producer for her latest solo effort, leaving behind Sydney’s sunny shores for a multiple-month stay in the depths of a snow-laden Swedish winter.
As Day Follows Night, the resulting album, is Blasko’s first since the Bernard Zuel-acclaimed (and ARIA award winning) What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have – an epic modern masterpiece in itself – and first without longtime collaborator Robert F. Cranny. Since the release of What The Sea, Blasko also dabbled in writing music for musical theatre, being nominated for a Green Room award for her work on Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is perhaps this influence that is immediately evident on As Day Follows Night, with album opener “Down On Love” containing a sprightly keyboard pixie that is part Wizard of Oz and part Tourism Victoria (if perhaps Joanna Newsom had a keyboard).
As the album moves onto first single, “All I Want”, it becomes abundantly clear that those hoping for a semla-fuelled “Konichiwa Bitches”-type outburst will be bitterly disappointed – this is a Blasko album through and through. While the track’s synth-like sounds hint at some of the more pulsating moments of What The Sea Wants (“Hammer”) it is the lyrical themes that instantly create synergy: Blasko has always been a highly literate, self-analytical composer and that theme is immediately evident. “I don’t even understand me, so don’t think that you can help” and “all I want is to one day come to know myself” she ruminates. While staying well clear of a Tori Amos cryptopia, it is nonetheless the start of a stream of self-questioning (including the “I wonder what I’ve done to end up this way?” pondering of album standout “Is My Baby Yours?”).
The influence of producer Bjorn Yttling becomes fully evident on the album’s third track, “Bird on a Wire”. Gone are the piano and guitar driven pulses of Blasko’s earlier work – and indeed, absent they remain for a large majority of the album’s remainder. In their place is the insistent pounding of a various drum beats and percussion – an occasionally arrhythmic heartbeat pounding loudly under Blasko’s musical skin (“keeping in time don’t matter as much as the feeling” she utters on “Over and Over). While much of her earlier was vocally and lyrically driven, the organic, percussive nature of As Day Follow Night takes centre stage – with Blasko’s usually languid vocals taking new haste on on “Bird on a Wire” and taking command on “Lost and Defeated” (“the emotional tide has turned and I see red”).
Despite its beat-centric schema, As Day Follow Night keeps things musically diverse with a few unexpected touches – the Copacabana-carnival keyboard introduction to “Over and Over”; the slight flamenco tinges of “Is My Baby Yours?”; the vocally-lead waltz of “I Never Knew” and the hints of film noir on album closer “Night and Day” (a track that, admittedly, would not have sounded out of place on What the Sea Wants, with shades of “Woman by the Well” and “I Could Never Belong To You”).
Ultimately, As Day Follows Night may divide Blasko fans, most noticeably for its stripped-back lyrical approach. The poetic twists and spirals of the Blasko literary vine are trimmed back and straightforward prose blooms in their place – more accessible for some, yet slightly disappointing for others. As an album it is much less challenging than What the Sea Wants, albeit never quite as jangly-guitar-pop-rock-easy as album debut Overture and the Underscore – and yet, doesn’t entirely sit comfortably between them either. Like all her work, it is worthy of repeated listens and, while never quite reaching some of the the dizzying heights What the Sea Wants, should help Sarah Blasko reclaim her coronet as Australia’s foremost* female singer-songwriter.
In summary: she is still good.
Standout track: Is My Baby Yours?, All I Want
You can read Sarah’s blog here, check out her Myspace and preorder the album.
As Day Follows Night is released in Australia on July 10.
*With apologies to Sally Seltmann. You are also excellent.
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