Rec.90
Erlend Ropstad : The Magnetic Tapes (N,2006)****
I started reviewing the singer-songwriter albums that I airplay on my radio show. I started with descriptions, but people expected some real reviews instead, and I realized that could help better the artists than just putting together likeminded artists. I still don't feel that I'm the most gifted person for this genre, because I can hardly follow all the lyrics, while I'm easily very distracted by the musical qualities. But sometimes even more detailed descriptions can not be enough to give the listeners an idea of the inspirational area.
In Norway Erlend was known before under his group (?) project 'Driving Diana', this is a first solo release that surely takes him into the international market. After some listens which still left me rather wordless, I checked some other reviews to see what they wrote about him. They all describe the singer as gifted in a more American styled singer-songwriter style, a description which I still do not find very satisfying. "All Right when you're near" even much more has something of the singing of early John Martyn to me, and also "Come on back in the morning" has emotional contrasts in the singing, both with an beautiful voice and second vocalist, the beautiful voice of Maria Due Tonessen, while other tracks have a kind of soft rock ability and strength. Oystein Greni accompanies on drums, banjo and telecaster ; -he is the singer/guitarist of an, in Norway, very famous band Big Bang-, and Eugen Shapov and Nicolai Eilertsen on bass. I don't have a grip on the lyrics yet. "Winona and I" are about a daydream fantasy of an imagined personal contact with Winona Ryder, as a very human and warm expression, while the other tracks recall in a similar affectionate way some memories, true or not, it does not really matter to what you can have feelings and thoughts for, it is the expressions themselves which are or become the most real reality. A very strong debut.
