Singles and albums have, as we all know, very different functions. One is about grabbing your attention; the other, about giving yourself the room to explore who you are musically and what you want to say and do. As such, any single can only ever be a snapshot of the album that it calls home.
You could make an argument for that being the case with “Lipstick On,” which served as a taster and teaser for Fredrik Norlindh’s new album, Contrasting Notes. It is found at the more obvious pop end of this, his debut album, but that said, it is cocooned in a wash of lush textures and shimmering anthemics, so, on reflection, it is perhaps more representative than I first thought.
Norlindh’s way with such grand sonics and elegant cinematography is the sonic fingerprint that connects all the songs found here, styles may change, sounds evolve, but it is definitely a case of “it ain’t what he does, it’s the way that he does it.” Whether it is the darker yet no less delicious, mid-paced, powerful pop of “No One Will Avenge Us,” or the lighter yet still lushly adorned “Can’t You See Me,” as different as the songs are, they are both grand affairs in their own individual ways. Even out-and-out dance groover “Our Last Goodbye” is loaded with more sonic sass and dazzling musical architecture than most clubland creatives would call on for an entire album…perhaps an entire career.
Contrasting Notes pulls in many directions, pop accessibility, rock urgency, orchestral grandeur, musical theatre panoramics, dance contagion, and more, but it is the way that Fredrik Norlindh applies the sound, the depth and density, the weight and wondrous attention to detail, which makes him stand out from the pack. And to do all of that and still produce songs that feel as if those depths and textures are what the songs couldn’t exist without is a real art.
It’s a big sound, but it is a clever one too. How often do you find that heady combination in the pop realm?
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