Right in between industrial noise, free improv, modern composition, and ye olde folk tune, Hanna Hirsch’s power pop really is the odd one out. And even though it’s not standard Foxy Digitalis fare by any means, it’s a great album that deserves to brighten up many early summer days. Released on cd by Release the Bats and as a tape on Klorofyll Kassetter a while ago, this has now been given the well-deserved, utterly fresh-sounding vinyl treatment by Berlin’s Adagio 830 label.
Hailing from Stockholm and singing in Swedish, the five musicians in Hanna Hirsch avoid any sense of nostalgia, and yet remind me of Hüsker Dü, Superchunk and Social Distortion (especially the guitar melodies). “Tala Svart” is their debut album: 14 songs of very similar length, speed and approach, and yet a total treat. “All 14 tracks”, as one of the involved labels claims, “are A-side single material”, and that is, indeed, a fact. The female vocals (again, in Swedish) add to the album’s charm, as does the occasional organ vignette. The anthemic final track, “Som Det Är”, is my favourite, but really, you could pick almost any track. What a great album: not groundbreaking, and somewhat unabashed, but somehow just right, this will be my soundtrack for the summer. 8/10 --
Jan-Arne Sohns (31 March, 2010)
