release date: Oct. 12, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,36]
producer: Anna Ternheim; Andreas Dahlbäck
label: Stockholm Records - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "To Be Gone" (4 / 5) (live) - 2. "Better Be" (4 / 5) (live) - 3. "I'll Follow You Tonight" - 4. "Bring Down Like I" - 9. "My Secret" - 10. "Shoreline" (live)
Studio album debut from Swedish artist Anna Ternheim (aka Anna Alexandra Ternheim) produced by Ternheim herself and Anders Dahlbäck as co-producer on eight tracks, Daniel Jansson on two, and with Mattias Areskog and Åsa Jacobsson as co-producers on one track. The album peaked at a high No. #3 on the Swedish albums chart and the first single "To Be Gone" only made it to No. #40, whereas the track "Shoreline", released nearly one year later, landed at No. #5 on the Swedish singles chart.
Somebody Outside starts off really well with two catchy tracks, after which the quality drops a bit and some compositions are a bit more on an adequate to the mediocre. I don't know anything about the story behind the album, but it definitely contains songs of high quality but also some flaws. Ternheim's occasional English-Swedish accent is somewhat thick, which on the one hand brings memories of Björk or Danish artist Tina Dickow, and on the other hand it's not a thing that should take focus away from the music, but it still does, especially on songs ["I Say No", "A Voice to Calm You Down", "Somebody's Outside"] where the lyrics sound tend towards Swedish high school music... in other words: album fillers that could have been replaced. And it's a bit of a shame, because Ternheim writes and composes really solid songs, which stylistically could fall in an admittedly crowded field somewhere in between Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, and Suzanne Vega - a field of female singer-songwriters who may fill entire ball rooms - but: Ternheim does it better than many others and in any case, the album is clear proof that you should keep eyes and ears open for releases from this artist.
[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6 stars ]
