Wow, we haven’t had a Playlist since last summer. Time to put that right, and the first four months of 2025 have seen a succession of Top Songs. Here is a sample of them, 10 songs in all but as usual many have to miss the cut simply for space considerations, as Katy Perry might say.
Click on the link at the bottom.
Please do check out the full review in each case, which is easily found through the Search function on the NMC website. You will also discover links to artists’ social pages there.
I just realised that eight of the 10 artists are female singer-songwriters and the other two are male/female duos. Don’t read anything into that, it’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
Ditto the fact that Finland and Iceland don’t figure. Next time out it might be 10 artists from those two countries alone…that’s the nature of the beast.
Bellefolie (Norway) – Your Gates
‘Beautiful Madness’ is their band name and that is what they are all about. We first came across them in January. ‘Your gates’ is only their third song but you’d think they’d been at it for years.
It switches back and forward between a sultry ballad and a tremendous synth and cello-led cinematic anthem and drips with emotion from beginning to end.
Isabell Engelsen is a terrific vocalist and equally adept at handling the softer parts and the spine tingling ones, along with the transition between them.
Iris Caltwait (Norway) – these are hard times (Say the words!)
It’s a deep song that will quite probably vary in its meaning with every listen. It is dark without being bleak but without even a hint of light at the end of the tunnel.
I like the way that it builds from a ballad to an anthem, sacrificing acoustic simplicity on the altar of synthesised orchestration, a washboard being replaced by a full kit and then just fades away with the realisation that the words she seeks just won’t come.
Kira Skov (Denmark) – Only the Dream
Kira has been part of the Danish music scene for a long time and will rack up her 17th album this year. But there’s no slowing down although there is a nod to the past as she observes that everyone is urged to ‘fulfill their dream’ almost as if you can have it, even be entitled to it, on demand like Instagram or TikTok, which of course most people cannot.
And she tellingly refers back in the song to the simpler days of her own childhood when such things didn’t exist and dreams “were roaming free”; more realistic ones perhaps like getting the chance to ride a horse, or going to a first pop concert without mum or dad. Or that first kiss.
Magly (Denmark) – they turn into ghosts
Magly (Ditte Bissenbacker) relates how she deals with anxiety and how you can end up turning people away because of your own insecurity in a fragile situation and even though help and comfort is actually what you need.
‘They turn into ghosts’ is epitomised by gently, calmly delivered verses, in which she might be chatting to a psychologist about her symptoms like Alanis Morissette contemplates irony; and in contrast uncontrolled manic choruses, as if she’s trying to emphasise the bipolarisation of her predicament.
Tara (Sweden) – Pain
A tender 16-year-old singer-songwriter based in Stockholm and originally from Serbia, Tara released her debut single, ‘Pain’ at the end of March.
In her case pain means being misunderstood, which I guess is something that happens easily when you move between countries and will most definitely apply to ‘international’ relationships.
I wasn’t expecting anything quite as attention grabbing. ‘Pain’ lies somewhere between a Shakespearean soliloquy and a plea for help to The Samaritans. The lyricism is exceptional for someone so young.
Musically, it is a power ballad underscored by thumping war drums and assorted percussion that suggest mounting tension, sumptuous synthesised chords and a delicious instrumental/vocal bridge.
Vocally – well is this really a 16-year old?!
Remedies (Norway) – Don’t let it in
Remedies’ latest single, ’Don’t let it in’ suggests a horror film, a spin-off from the Elm Street Freddy franchise, or perhaps Halloween, or even The Exorcist,
With its classic 1970’s acoustic guitar prog intro, cinematic melodies, chromatically rising riffs, synthesised orchestral arrangement; soulful jazzy bridge and baroque pop outro that has elements of both the UK’s indie darlings The Last Dinner Party and fellow countrywomen Katzenjammer, Remedies manage here to cram four or five songs seamlessly and tunefully into one.
Sara Lina (Denmark) – Only say yes
Sara Lina is one of several singers here over time that have been attracted to the sun and surf of antipodean climes, only to return and write a debut song.
Here she sings about the freedom to live spontaneously and say ‘yes’ to all of life’s experiences, fully aware that they might leave scars.
The song juxtaposes a melancholic piano of the sort that accompanies cinematic Rom-Coms when it becomes evident that Harry and Sally are never going to be an item after all these years, with a much less careworn, almost couldn’t care less, vocal delivery but one which at the same time is stating her philosophy that life is for living and she’s up for any challenge, just bring it on.
Sol Heilo (Norway) – Black Crow Cloud
Sol Heilo is a walking, talking box of contradictions and so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that she introduces her latest single, ‘Black Crow Cloud’, by describing the content as “dark matter” and adds, “sometimes when I’m sad, I seek comfort in listening to sad songs. When I’m dark, I listen to dark music. It’s like minus and minus is plus, in the state of mind.”
She’s shifted from the halfway house of Nordicana we’ve experienced before now to outright, full on gloomy Americana and does it extremely effectively.
I have no idea if this is going to be Sol Heilo’s new style going forward, or whether it’s a one-off. All I know for sure is that she never fails to come up with the goods and to live up to expectations.
Stephanie Meincke (Denmark) – Full time driver
Stephanie Meincke describes herself as a ‘professional over thinker’ and in ‘Full-Time Driver’ she relates how she feels she’s going the wrong way around a race track, dawdling along while everyone she knows is hurtling happily in the other direction, “having kids, and getting married.”
But it also serves another purpose, a more positive one, namely to remind her of “the small but significant goals, experiences, and moments that inspire us to do so much more.”
The song lies somewhere vaguely in that no-man’s land between pop, folk and Americana. It is sumptuous. Quality flows out of every note and every syllable sung.
Virvel (Denmark/Sweden – Strandens Morgengry
Virvel, which translates as ‘Whirl’ or ‘Swirl’, is Andrea Kjær Blomquist, a 23-year old who has written here a love letter to her hometown that reflects the homesickness that can arise when you’re far from your roots.
I’m always attracted to female singing voices that are both delicate and powerful at the same time.
She mixes her styles nicely as well. What is fundamentally a folk-pop number is enhanced by an intriguing early piano and string bridge, changes of pace and energy, some jazzy piano and in the outro something that sounds quite proggy before she goes full circle back to the opening gambit.
It’s a very well constructed song with something for everyone.
I’ve had problems embedding this one unless they’ve changed the procedure so click on the link.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/1XlURpLST0RfD2dwDsC4mK?utm_source=generator
