WORTH A LOOK?: ****
TRACKLIST: Heartbreak In The Making; Same Again (For Love); Ray-Bans; Somebody’s Baby; Hate Being Alone; Strawberry Dream; Close; In My Bones
‘Maybe we’re not made forever, maybe I don’t get to grow older with you, This house is keeping us together, we’re so Close but I’ve never felt further from you …’
- Read on for reasons including how ELLE is set to be the album of our summer
Welcome to the most affecting moment on Dagny’s 2nd album, a sparse piano ballad called Close which muses on a couple’s geographic proximity while despairing at how far out of love they are.
ELLE follows a similar pattern to the Norwegian’s debut album Strangers/Lovers, an album of the month for us back in January 2021, with the nature of romantic relationships thematically explored within an arc of falling in love and breaking up.
Debut single and album opener Heartbreak In The Making was a song of the month for us a year ago and we said: ‘ … (it’s) far less electro than its predecessor and the opening bars made us think of The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony with an emphasis on a more country’n’western sound which is increasingly having more mainstream chart success’.
2nd track Same Again (For Love) was a song of the week for us in July 2023 and we said: ‘We think she’s 1 of the most exciting pop/electro artists at the moment and can’t wait for her 2nd album not least because we are loving the barnstorming singles that are guiding us towards it.’
In fact this is rather a mini album and there are only 4 new songs, including Close, which we hadn’t heard before.
Next best is Bones in which our heroine learns that a little self love can go along way: ‘Just one body under the covers, took time but I finally love her.’
It’s the completely opposite sentiment to Hate Being Alone earlier which perhaps shows just how much things can change in relationships. ‘Romance was just in the old films, Now I’m texting you poems, Old songs I swore that I hated somehow came up in my favourites.’
In Somebody’s Baby our narrator is feeling is that she wants to play the field despite being in a relationship: ‘Can’t deny this chemistry is crazy but I’m already Somebody’s Baby.’
Our favourite however is the cool, anthemic Ray-Bans in which the titular sunglasses are used to conceal heartbreak: ‘Cause I loved you like summer there was no other, Now when I see you I just look away while my tears fall down but you’re never gonna know that.’
We’re also enjoying the new Charli XCX album Brat out his week which is Dagny’s main competition but we keep returning to ELLE over it because, despite its brevity, its lyrics hit home and there’s a little more melody than your run of the mill EDM to be swayed by.
When we saw Dagny in London in April we wrote: ‘Dagny and her band were clearly delighted to be back on the road for this 1st gig of 2024 here and we envy all those who have the joy of seeing them on their travels throughout Europe this spring and summer with the promise of even more terrific new music on the way.’
Can’t wait to hear these new songs live once more.
monstagigz 