The rare dance-pop opus that hangs together as an album first and a collection of songs second, the fourth full-length by Norwegian pop auteur Bertine Zetlitz -- a bona fide star in her homeland though virtually unknown elsewhere -- is a musical and emotional masterstroke: strange, stirring, seductive, spellbinding.
Given her roots in electronic pop, and those of producer Fred Ball (aka Pleasure), with whom Zetlitz wrote every song on the album, it's surprisingly, refreshingly organic in sound.
Over half of the tracks feature live drums, and even those that don't find some way of generating a resoundingly human warmth -- washes of steel guitar here, a smoldering saxophone lead there -- within a loose, underlying synth pop framework.
Although it's not overtly retro, the effect recalls the lush electric pianos and full band feel of '70s funk and disco rather than the icy, synthesized, '80s electro that was such a prevalent 2000s touchstone (for fellow Norwegian Annie's contemporaneous Anniemal, for instance.) Opener "Ah-Ah" is a chunky, acoustic guitar driven funk-pop workout with triangle flourishes à la Phoenix's "Everything Is Everything"; "Fake Your Beauty" is a full-on disco strut reminiscent of Chic.
Those two were the singles (and "Beauty" deservedly topped the Norwegian charts), but there are several other dance-pop nuggets of equal caliber, the slinky "Kiss Me Harder" and scintillating "Want You" among them.
Even more compelling, though, are the slower, less overtly danceable numbers wherein the album's curious, alluring, yet vaguely sinister tone is most evident.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ah Ah | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 02:44 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Fake Your Beauty | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:37 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Want You | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:23 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | If You Buy the Blue One | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:58 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Kiss Me Harder | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:53 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Candy | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:22 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Rollerskating | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 02:47 | 6 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | Broken | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:58 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | Wicked Wonderboys | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 04:12 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | Back Where I Belong | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 03:11 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 11 | If You Were Mine | Bertine Zetlitz | Play | 04:31 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 39 mins | 90 MB | |||||
| 0 mins | 0 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo Abrahams | Guitar |
| 2 | Brian Anderson | Guitar |
| 3 | Arnulf Lindner | Bass |
| 4 | Martin Slattery | Saxophone |
| 5 | Bertine Zetlitz | Primary Artist, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |