Lena Philipsson is back with a brand new single (always an occasion, in our world!). ‘Tis the follow up to February’s ‘Idiot’, ’tis released in Sweden on September 21st (the same week as two of her high profile contemporaries Agnes and Velvet), and ’tis titled ‘Nästa Säsong’ (which translates as ‘Next Season’).
Let’s get this bit out of the way first of all – it’s not quite what we wanted from her. By that we mean it’s not the ‘Lena Anthem’, ‘Det Gör Ont’, or ‘Jag Ångrar Ingenting’ that we were hoping for. In fact, on paper, it’s pretty much the worst case scenario in terms of what could have been released by the great Lena Philipsson. Mid-tempo, guitar driven balladry that’s been written by a man who normally writes for Håkan Hallström (Björn Olsson) and a gent who has produced for Anna Järvinen (Mattias Glavå).
HOWEVER,
While it’s not exactly what we thought we wanted from her, we’ve found herself once again mightily impressed by The Ph. Because she has managed to turn what we shouldn’t have liked (on paper) into something that we absolutely love. And on first listen, at that. It’s an absolute stunner of a song. So beautiful. It’s that chorus that gets us. It has an elegance that forces it to stop just short of turning into the full blown epic that it can be, that it could be. And it’s that calculated control that makes us, the listener, fall hopelessly for it.
She’s turned what could have been the very wrong turn for her, into a very right turn musically. And she’s making us long for that album even more than ever now.
That album, still untitled, is going to include contributions from Kleerup, Vanessa Falk, Christian Falk, Veronica Maggio, Kaah, Dungen, Mauro Scocco and Markus Krunegård. And it’s out on November 30th.
You can listen to ‘Nästa Säsong’, in full, here;
