Petra Marklund releases her first post-September album in less than two weeks! Starting from tomorrow, we’re gonna be previewing each of the tracks from the album, ‘Inferno’ on here. But before all that, let’s have a review, shall we? Ok.
Regular readers will either be aware, or at least have had an inkling, of the fact that we were in two minds about this whole Petra-Marklund-releasing-an-album-as-Petra-Marklund-instead-of-as-September issue. On the one hand it’s the same woman, so chances are she’s gonna put out another great album, regardless of moniker. Plus the signs were positive with the lead single from ‘Inferno’, the amazing ‘Händerna Mot Himlen’. BUT, on the other hand, this all reeks far too much of chasing ‘credibility’. And normally when a pop or dance artist chases such a thing, we always get left behind. Forgotten about. As do all the other fans.
‘Händerna Mot Himlen’ appeased for two reasons. Firstly because it’s jolly brill. But secondly, because it’s actually not a million miles away from September, and it doesn’t take too much of a stretch of the imagination to know that it’s the same artist behind both. ‘Inferno’ however, is actually that world away from September that we had feared. But we were very wrong to have feared it in the first place. And that’s because this new aforementioned world is actually a ruddy marvellous place to inhabit also.
So, in short: Does ‘Inferno’ sound like those September albums of old that we cherish? No, nothing like it. But does that matter? No, not in the slightest – it’s really very good. Very very good, in fact.
After quite a few listens, we’ve obviously got our favourites already – the songs that we’ve fallen for more so than others. And strangely enough, we’ve actually found that the album picks up some serious pace more towards the end, as opposed to all of the highlights being front loaded. Tracks 7 – 10 (‘Aska i Vinden’, ‘Vad Som Helst’, ‘Krig’ and ‘Händerna Mot Himlen’) is where the bits of brilliance lie on this album. They’re each incredible songs offering up something amazing to listen to – particularly the production on each of them. They’re the four that we keep coming back to. And then other album highlights are ‘Nummer’, ‘Kom Tillbaks’, and ‘Sanningen’. Plus ‘Fred’ has turned out to be quite the grower, if you allow it to be.
Lowlights (in comparison to the flashes of amazingnessness) are ‘Inferno’s book ends – the opening and closing tracks ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ and ‘Svarta Moln’. They’re exactly the sort of songs we didn’t want from a September-turns-Petra-Marklund album. Much too dark. And actually, just really really boring too. And ‘Förlorad Värld’ is another one we’re not a fan of. It just seems like a cynical try-hard parody of a particularly faceless Coldplay song.
Muchos kudos must(os) go to Daniel Ledinsky & Saska Becker for their work on the production on this album. They’ve produced everything on here all on their lonesome (with Salem Al Fakir popping up as a co-producer on one track, ‘Förlorad Värld’). And it has to be said that the production on ‘Inferno’ is definitely the best thing about it. That’s not to take anything away from the songwriting, or from Petra’s vocal – both also worthy of high praise in their own right – but it’s the production that supply the biggest WOW moments, and contribute to the overall feeling of “yes, this is a very good album this“.
And thus we find ourselves in a somewhat frustrating position. ‘Inferno’ is an undeniably great record, and is more than likely going to go on to be much more successful in Sweden for Petra than any of September’s albums ever have been (successful as they were). So where does that leave us with our beloved September?…… Well, we don’t think the future looks too bright for September. But it does seem extremely bright for Petra Marklund.
Starting from tomorrow we’re gonna be previewing each of the new tracks from ‘Inferno’. A clip of a new song every day up until the album’s release in Sweden on October 17th. And if you live outside of Sweden, you can already pre-order the album from our online store here.
