Swedish artist Emika KLASDOTTER is a composer and vocalist that kept her activities private for a number of years, at least as far as recording them goes. When she eventually wanted to reach outwards she chose a selection of material made over the course of many years, enlisted the aid of a handful of musical friends, and recorded her debut album “Everything Is Screaming”, which was released on Transubstans Records sublabel Sakuntala in the spring of 2013.
By and large this debut album by Emika can be described as a classic singer/songwriter production. Most of all because it’s her vocals that is the key ingredient throughout. She’s got a clear but careful voice, slightly accented, and with occasional unusual choices in terms of tonal range chosen. Which all combines to give her vocals an overall frail and tender quality, which suits the mostly sparsely arranged compositions quite nicely.
A single or dual set of guitars with the acoustic guitar as the central one is the most common constellation used on her material, with violin or cello supplementing in key sections. The latter adding a sad, melancholic atmosphere to the compositions, the former generally staying calm and fairly tender emphasizing that particular mood nicely alongside Emika’s vocals.
But she does head out into territories somewhat more sophisticated too. Simple drum patterns and resonating guitars with a psychedelic quality to them, with a firm and steady bass guitar driving the song forward, can be found on tracks such as Remember, Fireworks and I’m Alive. The middle of these the most impressive of the lot and a clear album highlight as far as I’m concerned. All of these with a sound fairly close to what I once associated with new wave (but which may or may not be sorted under post punk these days?) and perhaps in style but more certainly in mood making me think about bands like The Cure.
“Everything Is Screaming” is an album I suspect will appeal to those who like classic singer/songwriter material as well as material of a somewhat more adventurous kind. The key audience to my mind those who have albums by the likes of Lene Marlin and The Cure side by side in their music collection.
My rating: 78/100
