People who’ve spent any amount of time talking with me about musical preferences will know that the synth, as a lead instrument, is one of my least favourite sounds in contemporary music. So ‘Take Care of yourself’, the latest track to be taken from Norwegian artist Jenny Hval’s album Apocalypse Girl, should be pure anathema. A sparse, bloopy keyboard provides the only backing to Hval’s poetic stream of consciousness but somehow it’s perfect and erases any lingering musical prejudice with the fragile tension that it adds to the stunning vocal performance. The video, made of cut up shots from behind the scenes at an intimate show in New York, wholly catches the mood of the track too.
Apocalypse Girl is out now on Sacred Bones Records. Jenny Hval will tour Europe from 27th October, including the following UK dates in November:
05 – Glasgow (UK), The Hug & Pint
07 – Leeds (UK), Brudenell Social Club
08 – Manchester (UK), Soup Kitchen
09 – Bristol (UK), The Lantern
11 – London (UK), Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen