release date: Jan. 28, 2022
format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: Søren Buhl Lassen [?]
label: self-released - nationality: Faroe Islands, Denmark
Track highlights: 1. "Heaven Help Me I've Gone Crazy" - 2. "Can't Hate Myself Into a Different Shape" - 3. "Baleen Feeder" (live) - 6. "Favorite Day of the Week" - 7. "Hey Amanda" - 9. "This Weeks Laundry"
Studio album debut from Danish-Faroese Brimheim, aka Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff released with aid from WAS Entertainment and via her bandcamp.com profile. The total of 11 tracks have a running time around 37 mins and they're all credited Helena Rebensdorff and Søren Buhl Lassen (drummer of Blaue Blume) - previously he collaborated with danish artist Benjamin Hav - but there's little information about the production of the album regarding featuring instrumentalists as well as technical staff.
Musically, it's indie pop with traces of singer / songwriter or folk pop with hints from introspective threads to Phoebe Bridgers, who has herself listened to Kate Bush and uptempo-songs filled with an audacious mindset and presumed inspiration in Alanis Morissette and PJ Harvey without ever sounding like a copy. It's quite impressively arranged and produced, and it reeks the kind of coherency as something you would expect from an artist later on in his / her career. There's a certain maturity to the music and lyrics indicating that Brimheim herself has turned 30, is a mother who has already enough life experience to as foothold, and in that way is far from a mere whiz-kid. Mind you, Brimheim has already released the 5-track ep Myself Misspelled in 2020 and the single Call It What You Want in '21, which had some airplay in on the national DR P3, however, it's not a major back catalogue, calling for the title as 'Best promising Danish Act of the Decade', or the like - something Danmarks Radio in the local echo chamber with some success have applied to their very own radio host Drew Sycamore, although, she's nowhere near the talent and originality of Brimheim. The narratives on Can’t Hate Myself Into a Different Shape mainly touch on the subjects of identity and prejudice, and from what I've managed to read about some of her experiences in that regard, it appears that Rebensdorff has something to draw on, and she does that with great skills while abstaining from sentimentallity and by avoiding to take position as a victim.
Previously, both Oh Land, Rebekkamaria, and Medina have all sought for an international pop-sound in the neighborhood of a mix á la Alanis Morissette and the more introspective á la someone like Sharon Van Etten without copying Lykke Li, Anna Ternheim, or Ane Brun. Helena Rebensdorff succeeds on her own terms, and it remains a mystery, touching on ridiculous, that a major label haven't been able to notice the obvious potential and thrown in the right amounts of money, a promotion campaign, and a solid marketing strategy to secure Brimheim and this very album. Hopefully, it's just no longer necessary if the talent is sufficient support, people's eyes and ears will probably create an interest in Brimheim, who then will take care of the rest herself.
Can't Hate Myself Into a Different Shape is up for grabs as Danish release of the year and can only be recommended
[ Gaffa.dk, Soundvenue 5 / 6 stars ]
#YearBestDanishAlbum
