- A theatrical album debut from two of Norway's brightest pop stars.
- If you listen to Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg's excellent monthly NTS show, you can form a picture of a well in your mind—a well the Norweigan duo draws influence from when they write pop music together as Smerz. Each episode is like a chapter in adolescence, often featuring classic trance and pop music tropes, including, lately, themes like "Weekend Getaway" and "Rap Interludes." This month's edition, the "Oslo Teenage Mix," should resonate with anyone who came up going to underage discos in the early '00s.
Smerz marry these fleeting memories of teenage euphoria with pop modernism and a wider sense of the sublime. Their approach is spontaneous and intuitive—they avoid rigidity but are anchored in classical training. Their debut album, Believer, furthers the ideas they explored on a string of singles released on XL Recordings since 2017.
Motzfeldt and Stoltenberg's subtle R&B harmonies are understated and arresting, exposing the inner sanctum of a complex emotional relationship. Believer is an album about raw friendship, personal image and collective awareness. It's also an intimate love letter to Norway. On tracks like "Rain" and "Glassbord," the pair alternate between singing and rapping in their mother tongue and in English. The title track is tougher, each verse building in intensity over violin chords and a jagged hip-hop beat until a powerful chorus that brings XL mainstay M.I.A. to mind: "Where did you go? I lost you oh baby / Is this goodbye / You're not here to save me / And all this time, I'm still a believer."
Drawing from the worlds of classical and rap, the record features many interludes. "Versace Strings" is a short piano bridge where baroque sounds develop into modernist pop. Tracks like "4 temaer," "Rap Interlude", "Missy" and "Grand Piano" use short motifs, rap sketches and supersaw waveforms to reset the tone to rave. "Hester" begins with a flurry of trance arpeggios that build to a pointillistic peak—the first three minutes sound like Philip Glass and Lorenzo Senni battling it out in a whirling symphonic duel.
"Flashing" has the intro melody of a crossover Eurodance hit. But instead of unfurling into airhorns, it becomes a subdued pop song anchored by sombre violin chords and a stunning vocal hook. The lyrics on "Sonette"—"This is how I tell you / Then I get so scared / And I say something else / And you look somewhere else"—reflect the naivety, tenderness and heartache of youth. "The Favourite" is a beautiful choir piece centering around Motzfeldt's operatic vocal chords. (For anyone looking to try it at home, Motzfeldt and Stoltenberg have made the sheet music available via the Smerz newsletter, and as part of a songbook that comes with some versions of the LP.)
The final two tracks, "I Don't Talk About That Much" and "Hva hvis," were released together in a music video with a midsummer-esque feel, drawing from the set design of Lars Von Trier's Dogville. Folk dancers perform a mixture of acrobatics and ceremonial ceili-style dancing. Motzfeldt plays violin on a ladder, while Stoltenberg twirls in ecstasy before ascending to the sky. Reminiscent of the duo's track "Sure" from their very first EP, Okey, it's one of their best tracks for getting to the emotional core of rave. Supersaws and R&B vocals are a perfect match; trance chords build, you can feel the party rising, fists clenched, awaiting a thumping bassline.
Tracklist01. Gitarriff
02. Max
03. Believer
04. Versace Strings
05. Rain
06. 4 Temaer
07. Hester
08. Flashing
09. The Favourite
10. Rap Interlude
11. Sonette
12. Glassbord
13. Grand Piano
14. Missy
15. I Don't Talk About That Much
16. Hva Hvis