Hardships! Spectrum Album of the Week…
May 20, 2009 Posted by Eva at 2:25 pm
Not only does she possess the highest cheekbones in pop – Jenny Wilson has also been awarded one of Australia’s highest musical accolades: Hardships! was Bernard Zuel’s Album of the Week in SMH’s Spectrum.
“This is an unconventionally shaped record, peppered with moments that cast shadows of disturbance you can never completely make out but always prodding you with its attractive qualities…this is smart and very attractive pop music…”
Read the rest of the wonderful review here.
Hardships!
May 1, 2009 Posted by Eva at 1:13 pm
“If you have to describe ‘Hardships!’ I’ll tell you that it’s a collection of modern work songs for all times. That it contains shimmering in-preparedness-poetry and raw R’n'B, in a way you never heard it before. I want ‘Hardships!’ to feel simple as salt and pepper on your tongue. And sparkling as a burning matchstick that you can burn your fingertips upon! This record is about motherhood, and the fight within!”
Jenny Wilson released her celebrated debut Love And Youth in 2005 with the hit singles Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward and Summertime, The Roughest Time. The album received several awards, including the P3 Guld award for Pop in 2005, and attracted extensive international attention leading to much appreciated tours of Scandinavia, Europe and Australia.
In 2006, after the birth of her second child, Wilson began plotting her sophomore release Hardships! Like her Scandanavian contemporaries Annie, Robyn, and Fever Ray, Wilson was wholly responsible for the sound of the album, recording and producing Hardships! in her own The Gold Medal Studio in Stockholm. Wilson also decided to launch her own label after releasing her debut on The Knife’s Rabid Records, so she established Gold Medal Recordings under exclusive licence to Playground Music.
With the iconic quirky pop sensibilities we grew to love on Love And Youth, Hardships! is a joyous, poignant and idiosyncratic collection of mature pop melodies. Described as “absorbing” by Uncut and “fantastically enjoyable” by Dazed and Confused, Hardships! is indicative of a shift in contemporary pop writing towards more considered and intelligent production.
With guest appearances from Scandinavia’s finest including Mapei, El Perro Del Mar, and Simone Rubi, this is
an album that is worth the reward of repeated listens.
Hardships! is out now on etcetc.
Tracklisting:
- The Path
- Like A Fading Rainbow
- Clattering Hooves
- The Wooden Chair
- Porcelain Castle
- Anchor Made Of Gold
- Bad Waters
- Only Here For The Fight
- Pass Me The Salt
- Motherhood
- Hardships
- We Had Everything
- Strings Of Grass