Norwegian musician and novelist Jenny Hval returns with Classic Objects. Classic Objects is a map of places; past places, like the old empty Melbourne pubs Hval’s band used to play in, public places Hval missed throughout lockdown, imagined, future places, and impossible places where dreams, hallucinations, death and art can take you. It is interested in combining heavenly things and plain things. Classic Objects is Hval’s version of a pop album. Every song has a verse and a chorus. There are interchangeable moments of complexity, interesting melodies throughout, and a feeling of elevation and clarity in the choruses. Heba Kadry mixed it to sound as though it’s played through “a stereo in a mysterious room.”

Jenny Hval is still making important feminist statements and sounds completely unique. However, this time her experimentations have become more accessible with the same kind of catchiness as her magnum opus ‘Conceptual Romance’. Hval expressed a desire to write ‘simple stories’ and this simplicity comes through musically as well as lyrically.

FFO: Julia Holter, Circuit des Yeux, Mega Bog, Keeley Forsyth.

By Martha