I spent this Easter Saturday afternoon listening to classic tracks from classic artists including the likes of Genesis, Fiona Apple, Nightwish and Weyes Blood.
Sometimes when I do that the new release I listen to next pales by comparison.
Not this time though. I was expecting big things from Bellefolie after their previous single, ‘Your Gates’, one that “drips with emotion from beginning to end.” I wasn’t disappointed.
Their fourth single, ‘Grey Area’ somehow blends Francophone hip hop, British pop, Arabic scales, and strings recorded at Abbey Road Studios.
The song is an entreaty not to continue to strive to be a better version of yourself; rather to be what you are and damn the consequences.
Although you wouldn’t necessarily know that from the first half of the song, which is in English and is lyrically cryptic, to say the least. There isn’t the determined stridency say of Fiona Apple’s ‘A better version of me’, in which she’s “got a plan, a demand and it just began”…and “here’s coming, a better version of me”.
The second half is in French, the other part of the grey area I suppose, and starts to make more sense. And it gets more pointed.
In it, she (Isabell Engelman) sings of the little war going on within her from which no-one will benefit or win. It won’t stop, but she has to put an end to the madness.
I was going to try to be clever, (moi, intelligent? Pfff!) by connecting this song not only to Fiona’s effort but also to Sia’s ‘Soon we’ll be found’ which she penned in 2008, before she started writing mega hits for mega stars, and also to amilost’s more recent ‘Tiny War’.
All have something similar to say to the thread of Bellefolie’s song but to do so would be a redundancy because ‘Grey Area’ stands alone as highly convincing piece of work.
Musically, the hip hop opening grabs your attention instantly. I was half expecting Coolio to come in on vocals.
The French part is ethereally anthemic, which sounds like a cop out on my part, using words I usually try to avoid but I can’t put it any other way. It is a section that could have been lifted out of the eeriest part of the weirdest episode of Twin Peaks and is accompanied by a percussive contribution that is either being played in a peculiar time signature or which fits the existing one by way of quantum physics.
Vocally, well I’ve recorded my appreciation of Ms. Engelman’s singing before now but she exceeded even my high level of expectation here. In some passages you get the impression she could play Edith Piaf in a biopic.
And the production is top class
There is no two ways about it. Bellefolie are pushing the envelope as hard as just about anyone at the moment.
I can’t help but imagine them as the Norwegian equivalent of The Last Dinner Party, which is the indie darling band of the moment in the UK but which, to be honest, seems rather stulted by comparison.
On 26th April they play a show at Kulturhuset, Bergen and are coming to the UK later in the year. Check social pages for details.
Find them on:
Website: https://bellefoliemusic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554815578790
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellefoliemusic/
