I En Tid Som Var

Some artists never deny themselves. On a Chris Isaak album, it never takes many seconds before the word “crying” is uttered – and on a Marie Fredriksson album, it’s just as it is when the rain falls already on the fourth line. Her textual symbolism is unchanging as kitsch art, with pale autumns, cold winters, green grass and a mild warm spring. The strange thing in this context is that it is not about her being afraid to expose herself. Few Swedish female artists have used music as clearly as a therapy couch for personal sorrows and crises. The problem is that she has formulated herself so vaguely and wrapped up that only the most initiated circle understands what she is singing about – and then there are easy luxury anxiety debates. That she needs to become more drastic as a lyricist is extremely obvious in “I en som vår”, which is colourless next to self-extinction. She sings about “the broken time we live in” but does not even begin to turn the shards. She wants to “get drunk with love” but barely even sniffs at the cork. I have always had respect for Marie Fredriksson and her strong integrity. But if she does not make more urgent albums than this, she can just as easily stick to the diary.