release date: Oct. 30, 2017
format: cd (MatFal2017 - digipak)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]
producer: Christian Ki Dall
label: Just For The Record - nationality: Denmark
4th studio album from Mathilde Falch following two years after Alle taler (Oct. 2015) is like the predecessor produced by Christian Ki Dall, who also plays guitar on the album.
Som børn på ny doesn't appear as the most natural follow-up to her so far boldest rock-release, which could have been a natural step to follow a successful release, but it's much more of a melancholy-driven and emmotional soft rock album with focus on personal stories. There's an underlying tone of hopelessness in between themes of hope and dreams - perhaps aided by slower tempo and electronic bits instead of a more classic line-up and her repetitous notions of demons and emptiness.
Compared to previous releases, this is both more subdued, without strong singles but also comes out as her most personal album to date, which appears quite coherent. "Lad det boble" and "Lykken vender" are obvious attempts to satisfy fans of her more uptempo songs but these mostly turn out as recycling of older songs and they stand a bit alone as her only rockin' attempts on this. Critics would perhaps note that the album stays much on the same path without contrasts as proof of absent understanding of how to incorporate dynamics as a means to colour a full album.
Som børn på ny probably still feels like her best - for some, who really enjoy inner-felt ballads, and then it apparently signals some kind of rebirth to the artist. Falch has publicly revealed having fought with drinking abuse - much like har father did, and then this new album is her first after leaving behind her alcohol abuse thanks to her desire to become a mother. In that way, the album is an honest and most personal one, and you should perhaps know how to appreciate the strong willed process behind some of the lyrics, which on the other hand also comes with an appeal to dig into. I mostly find the arrangements too grey and without much else than an opportunity to tell personal stories, which on a musical side don't come around as new. Best song here is the uptempo rocker "Lykken vender", which was her best faring single from the album (the other two being the title track and track #2, "Tiden"), and after that I found myself yearning for more of that sound and for me it remains the only real sunbeam on a grey and somewhat easily forgettable album, if you don't appreciate the personal journey they also contain. In that way the album is a difficult collection of songs. I really would like to praise Falch's honesty and her openness about a private process, but as an original work it does fall a bit in the pit of really serious (master-)works that deal with exsistential issues and in the end, I think it could both have turned out as Falch's peak product to date as well as her least favourable one. Given her personal angle and her honesty, I land my personal verdict somewhere in between, although, it's not an album I return to only because of the music simply because I don't find her songs here are backed by obvious great musical support.
