SELF-REFERENTIAL: At her best, Ane Brun breaks out of the coffeeshop. |
The second album by this Norwegian singer-songwriter blands out into coffeeshop background blur a little too often to earn a place next to more dynamic records by fellow folk-pop females like Beth Orton and Feist. But the CD has its moments, the best of which make the case that Ane Brun is a wilier, more original talent than you might have thought. In “Laid in Earth” she layers her frosty vocals over a gentle piano arpeggio — no surprise there — but then throws in a rollicking tuba line that almost upends the tune’s careful melancholy. She does the same thing a few tracks later, where, accompanied by another gentle arpeggio (acoustic guitar this time), she sings, “My friend, you left me in the end,” before admitting, “I can’t believe I’m writing a song where friend rhymes with end.” That sly self-referential streak surfaces again in “Song No. 6,” an appealingly goofy duet with Canadian popster Ron Sexsmith in which she details how many lines per song a lover’s various attributes merit.
Ane Brun + Mieka Pauley + Brendan James | July 23 | Paradise Lounge, 969 Comm Ave, Boston | 617.562.8804
On the Web
Ane Brun: http://www.anebrun.com/
