Classic Objects - Jenny Hval
Main Genres: Ambient Pop, Art Pop
A decent sampling of: Psychedelic Pop, Space Ambient, Progressive Pop, Progressive Electronic, New Age, Experimental
Jenny Hval has to be one of the most elusive, tricky, and polarizing names in alternative music today.
Much like her American contemporary Julia Holter (whom, funnily enough, she also shares her initials with), the Norwegian artist leans heavily into the avant-garde classical side of art pop. Unlike Holter, Hval seems to almost purposely set out to be as unyielding as possible to a wider audience of alternative music fans.
Her approach to melody is radical, disregarding many of the established conventions, and creating melodic lines that often stretch on much longer than average before repeating themselves, or sometimes do not repeat themselves in full at all. She has a penchant for spoken word lyrics that often sound like entire dissertations on gender studies, linguistics, and abstract art. Furthermore, she is a big fan of overlaying sounds that are not very harmonious in a traditional way.
Essentially, It is abundantly clear that Hval does not make music for the masses, and is perfectly happy to continue creating âpop' music for those with similarly esoteric tastes (most of them probably academics and artists themselves). In spite of that, Hval has amassed a decent cult following that puts her in a similar vein of popularity to some of those other quirky art pop songstresses of her era, like Spellling and the aforementioned Julia Holter.
Her mini-breakthrough record in 2016 Blood Bitch was an album I appreciated more than I truly adored. A post-modern concept album about vampires, period blood, and feminism sounds really genius on paper. But I feel like the music mostly got lost in its own concept, and the lyricism could be quite lofty and a little too high-minded. Though a fascinating LP and one I still ultimately enjoyed, the only big takeaway was âConceptual Romanceâ, a cerebral trip of ambient pop that still melts my ears whenever it gets to the warm synths of its chorus.
I feel similarly about her trance-infused 2019 LP The Practice of Love, being a work of art that is impressive in its ambition and the ground that it breaks, but also only managing to connect with me as a listener in small quantities. Mind you, there is plenty of experimental music that I absolutely love, but Hval has always been up to this point an artist I respected more than an artist I came back to frequently, apart from a handful of songs across multiple projects. Personally, I always thought that if she could harness her songwriting craft to be as sharp as her eccentric tastes and ideas, then she could drop a great album.
Fortunately, in 2022 that album finally came to fruition.
Classic Objects is a fascinating, cosmological work of ambient pop and art pop that could very easily soundtrack the everyday life of a hermit-wizard-philosopher, who lives atop a mountain peak in her magical apothecary-observatory. It is a splendid mix of more pop-oriented songwriting with her trademark long-form experimentations, achieved through a prominent usage of bongos, congas, and warm keyboards.
Though I would hesitate to ever ask an artist to âdial downâ the elements that make their art unique, I have to say I highly appreciate that Hval seemed more willing this time to place less emphasis on her concept and more emphasis on her songcraft. What emerges from this approach is easily the most successful music project Iâve heard from her, and one that definitely rewards repeated listens. It still has a lot of wonderfully weird Jenny-isms, but they enhance the music more than they distract from it as I sometimes found on her previous records.
Opener âYear of Loveâ follows a rocksteady beat, with twinkling triangles and shakers, a bubbly organ riff, and glowing synth pads. It is one of her most playful and simply joyous songs. I could imagine vibing hard to this in an exceptionally esoteric cafĂŠ while drinking something spiked with psychedelics.
Speaking of coffee and psychedelics, âAmerican Coffeeâ is psychedelic pop that starts off ambient and then gets into a real nice jamming rhythm, with an ascending chorus that wonderfully accentuates just how light and diaphanous Hvalâs natural singing voice is. Again, it sounds like sheâs having a lot of fun with her melodies and rhythms this time around and allowing the music to take hold, rather than just accompany her intellectual musings.
Then thereâs âYear of Skyâ which is, in my humble opinion, Jennyâs greatest accomplishment as an artist thus far; an ambient pop meets prog opus marked by perpetual hand drum rhythms that scale reality like climbing a mountain until they reach the heavens of the inner-consciousness. This track is a supremely cerebral experience, probably best appreciated during a major astronomical event like a solar eclipse (not that Iâve had the opportunity to try it). Alternatively, this could just as easily be enjoyed on a hot summer day under a vast sky.
âFreedomâ is an odd but charming left-field cut, a celestial folk protest song with glittering harps wherein Jenny advocates for a more tender and life-affirming version of the classical liberal ideals of democracy and liberty. It might come off as a bit too on the nose for some, but I actually really appreciate the songâs forward messaging, and the seraphic delivery makes it feel like a holy transmission throughout space and time, calling for an end to all suffering across the universe(s).
There is still yet one track on this LP where concept seems to disproportionately outweigh songcraft, and that track is âJupiterâ. While the eight minute piece ends in some truly gorgeous droning space ambient, the journey to get there is a bit messy and marked by a list of challenging musical elements that could have come together in a more compelling way (again, in my humble opinion).
However, Iâm glad to report that the aforementioned track is the exception, and that Classic Objects is largely a massive step up in the right direction for Jenny Hvalâs music. With this project, Hval has not stopped making cryptic music for her equally cryptic fellow art school types, but has instead widened the pool to invite all of us to dance along to the beat of her own celestial drum.
Highlights: âYear of Skyâ, âYear of Loveâ, âFreedomâ, âAmerican Coffeeâ
