release date: Oct. 23, 2020
format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,65]
producer: Andreas Sommer
label: Temper Records - nationality: Demark
Track highlights: 1. "Min tabte ven" - 2. "True Love" - 3. "Tænker på os to" - 4. "Din bar" - 5. "Biler" - 6. "Venner" - 9. "Et kys er ik nok mer" - 10. "Vi følger hinanden"
5th studio album by Marie Key following a little more than two years after Giganter (Jul. 2018) sees a welcome back to producer Andreas 'Maskinen' Sommer, who is credited as multi-instrumentalist also is credited as co-composer of six out of a total of eleven songs. The album also sees a few featuring guests, which include Tim Christensen on guitar (track #2), Christoffer Gregersen on vocals (track #6), and Simon Kvamm on vocals (track #9). The album has primarily been issued as a vinyl only album (also available as digital download) but not on cd format, and it's the first to be released on Key's own label, Temper Records.
As many releases from 2020 the album has been recorded and produced at a time of uncertainty - with reference to general lockdowns, and in that regard it may have been delayed as Key probably to be able to follow it up by a tour.
Marie Key is a way of showing a more stripped down view on an artist, who has taken the country by storm but also experienced a difficult time after her first two acclaimed albums, although Giganter was a fine album it just was't met by enthusism and great reviews. And that tendency may have hit this very album even harder as it hasn't been promoted strongly and basically appears to have near vanished from the public interest, which is more than strange. Yes, the song "True Love" was a minor national hit but the album failed to enter top 40 and seems to have come out only to be greatly ignored, which is really sad, because it is a fine album where Key once again reveals her gifts as a gifted contemporary songwriter of personal and inner conflicts with an obvious broad appeal always serving her songs with glimpses of hope, despair, and humour, but also with a purposeful sense for a wider target group. It's both simple narratives and modern poetry on a another level than pop without substance, and Key simple deserves more listeners but may have found the limitations in singing entirely in Danish when everyone's eyes and ears are on a globalised perfect world via Insta, Tik-Tok, and X.
Definitely recommended.
[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6, 💩Ekstra Bladet 3 / 6 stars ]
