Frida Hyvönen reviewed
Frida Hyvönen
Silence Is Wild
(Secretly Canadian)
One gets the sense Swedish musician Frida Hyvönen assumes some sort of entitlement with the way she treats her material. She’s gonna try everything, ready or not.
Appearing: Monday, November 3rd at Lakeshore Theater in Chicago.
Her second Secretly Canadian outing packs reams of confidence under its Carole King demeanor, soaring to Petula Clark highs while dissecting such disparate themes as Smog songs, Swedish stereotypes, and abortion. A certain city on the Thames might sit up at the way she belts “London! London!,” only to find she’s ripping on a moldy depiction of the bourgeoisie. Hyvönen adores spinning love songs on their heads over Tin Pan backdrops: dumping a bookish beau for seeing through her moods, pining for a fleeting, movie-set fling, and not wanting to get married — but really wanting to. Silence Is Wild is a gleeful romp, capped by possibly the sloppiest exaltation of love this decade, “Why Do You Love Me So Much”: “Could it be my awesome looks? Have I won the Nobel prize?” Yes! Everything!
— Steve Forstneger
Click here to download “Enemy Within.” http://www.scjag.com/mp3/sc/enemywithin.mp3
