Sweden’s Janice Kavander recently stated that: “I don’t make super commercial music”. That claim is open for debate, and may surprise her major label advocates, especially since she’s apparently been endorsed by Ricky Martin and Charli XCX. It’ll puzzle those who hear a number of its songs, too.
Whether it’s the big budget choral drama of Enough (and as a former member of the same gospel choir as Seinabo Sey and Lykke Li, Kavander definitely knows how to use massed voices), or Love You Like I Should, another gospel- flavoured, similarly bombastic stormer, these are boom or bust productions that sound like the money they’re intended to recoup. This is no criticism.
Kavander has a molten voice that carries big, soulful melodies like You Only Say You Love Me In The Dark and the more subdued tunes, like Don’t Need To.
Sometimes her lyrics are splattered with vanilla phrases, and Someone New’s: “People call me crazy/ When I tell them about you” seems a little reckless in such ‘#metoo times‘.
But she’s not afraid of putting herself out there, as Answer, a song about her father – who took his life four years ago – demonstrates: “Daddy I feel lost/ Wish you could hear my song/ It’s been four years without you.” Such transparent emotions are always easy to buy.
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