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release date: Jun. 3, 2022
format: digital (sPlotify)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,36]
producer: various
label: Cloudland Records - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 3. "Kyndelmisse kys mig"
Conceptual project album from Solen Er Sexet - here represented by a Danish music collective led by songwriter Lise Westzynthius and author and playwright Bjørn Rasmussen. Both are credited the majority of the songs here and both contribute as vocalists. The album feature a vast group of individuals, some of which have co-written the songs with Westzynthius and Rasmussen and participants count performers with aliases like HunBjørn, Solveig, GRO, Vakle, peachlyfe, Princess Waterfall, O/RIOH, alongside the following: Anna Brønsted, Frederik Valentin, Laurids Bruun Rørvig, Søren Bigum, Niels Gröndahl, Maria Laurette Friis, and Henrik Vibskov - the latter also took part in the Danish band Luksus together with Westzynthius. Producer credits of the individual songs seems based on the featuring 'guest(s)'.
Lise Westzynthius most recently released the album JA (Sep. 2018), which already pointed to a new focal point of her music, which I experienced as having a new-religous tone of naivety. This is indeed another leap into an extraordinary field of performative expression. I'm fully aware that the album has been met by some positive reviews from established national newspapers and music magazines. That said, I have been in doubt about how to meet this release. My first reaction was one of big surprise and something I found was a disbelief - both when listening to sheer musical qualities and then when confronted by the lyrics. Put together, there's undoubtedly musicality at stake. I think that's a most positive notion and probably the one I'm able to utter 'cause fact is, it's more extreme than good. In some ways, and without further comparison, it's a bit like what I experienced upon listening to Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter's SAVED (2023) in terms of an immediate sense of disbelief. And there's a lot of that going on when listening to Solen Er Sexet, which btw. translates to 'The Sun Is Sexy', and the end result unfortunately also include my personal rejection of the music, which it also did in the case of Hayter. Musically, it's mostly anything but challenging and completely held in a harmony-driven gear like someone who only hits the white keys on the keyboard. Lyrically, the songs reflect composer skills but not without a strong implication of not only simplicity but also a new age-/new-found-Christian-/new-nature-religious-like naivety. The whole music collective seems fully emerged in a nature-eros lifestyle, which oozes through music and lyrical content. Without pointing any fingers at the performing collective, they obviously represent and embrace non-binary and multiple sexualities; however, their common musical product here reek anything but deeper intellectual thoughts, which in many ways actually reflect the strongest asset but also, and that's most critical: it also imbellishes an amateurish approach that too often reminds me of what you would expect from a secondary school or high-school musical happening.
The songs are positive in subject treatment and even showcase creative, original rhyming phrases. And that's when focusing on a positive feedback regarding artistic intention, but most choruses, and even in the verses, the language is extremely naive and repetitious. "Skødesløse lænder", "Kom i mit smil", "Hej gud", "Heidi her", "Fiskes liste" are all hard to listen to because of downright amateurish language. To me, this is bad on too many parameters and frankly below mediocre. I think, I actually rate it higher only due to the positive starting point and the all-embracing vibes because how can you not welcome someone, when their only desire is to reach out and to preach peace, love, and harmony?
