Siberian Missionrelease date: Nov. 5, 2007
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,26]
producer: Lise Westzynthius
label: A:larm / Auditorium - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 1. "Siberian Mission" - 2. "Childlike Curves" - 3. "Motion Picture" - 4. "Soldiers" - 5. "Long Dark Night of the Soul"
3rd studio album by Lise Westzynthius follows the album Rock, You Can Fly (Mar. 2004) by close to four years. Where the predecessor starred British producer Ian Caple, this new album is made with Westzynthius producing seven tracks, mixing engineer and producer Carsten Heller and Henrik Balling (of Gangway) both producing one track each, and then British musician Rob Ellis as producer and arranger of two songs (tracks #1 and #8) still offer high quality guest appearances - it's probably no coincidence that Ian Caple, who produced Westzynthius' 2004 album later produced husband Peter Sommer's Destruktive Vokaler (2008), on which Henrik Balling and guitarist Søren Bigum appears - Bigum also plays guitar on six tracks here, and then also Peter Sommer appears on two songs.
Stylewise, Siberian Mission is in some ways an extension of her 2004 album, blending indie pop and electronica with subtleness, but along the way it's obviously a much more folk-oriented album compared to the predecessor, but also less of a coherent release. Most tracks are soft and mellow in style, some are uptempo pop, but a few tracks simply burst with aggressiveness, which makes them stand out much more when surrounded by quiet and gentle songs, and then hardly any songs in particular attracts your attention and makes this a great album. In fact, I find it a bit underwhelming when thinking of how good the predecessor was.
