Malu Pierini (Denmark) – Just for Us (single)
Malu Pierini is Danish-Corsican, possibly the most intriguing nationality combination we’ve had so far.
Her song ‘Just for Us’ concerns first dates and what makes them special. Yes, I remember those. Just.
She zeroes in on the nervous energy, the wardrobe crisis (well, not for blokes, love), apologising for being late and “everything else that ultimately doesn’t matter when the magic happens, and two people just click.” Yeah, I vaguely recall that, too.
So it’s a love song to the small things that can make a first date a unique thing.
There’s plenty of romance about the song, which somehow manages to combine a bossa nova beat with a sophisticated 60s or 70s Euro pop sound while her voice is very sensual and alluring and might have been used for an advert for hiring an Ocean going yacht out of Monte Carlo, it sucks you in so much.
It says ‘I’m in love’ without employing any of those words. Classy, intimate and elegant.
‘Just for Us’ was written in collaboration with Sofie Daugaard, and was produced by brothers Nicholas and Oliver Kincaid.
And there’s more to come from Malu in 2025.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/malupierini
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malupierini/
Oak (Norway) – Shimmer (single/track from forthcoming album)
Oak is a new band to NMC and this track, ‘Shimmer’, is the first single from their fourth album, ‘The Third Sleep’, which comes out on 25th April.
They fill a space which is always attractive to me, one that encompasses folk, progressive rock, hard rock and electronica. (And, I believe even black metal, which doesn’t feature here).
The theme of the album is ‘societal complacency and the struggle of the individual’. I can’t speak for Norway but here in the UK both components are extremely apposite right now as we sleepwalk towards an unknown political future while the ‘individual’ is denied the ability to express his or her opinion on it (i.e. free speech is denied).
How they do it here is by contrasting light and darkness, more restrained passages then complemented by full-on, guitar and piano dominated anthemic ones. And then just when you think the seven and a half minute track will continue in the vein it branches off into a semi-classical section, one that is almost medieval or baroque in nature before a short, rapidly ascending finale that might signify that last helicopter out of Saigon or the last spaceship from a dying Earth.
Interspersed among all that is a neat little and quite unexpected sax solo and growled vocalisation by singer Simen Valldal Johannessen that Crash Test Dummies’ Brad Roberts would be proud of.
Clearly there is much more to Oak then I can convey is this short and time-restricted piece. I’m listening to another track as I write this and it is classical prog.
Perhaps more from them later if I get the chance.
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oakinoslo
