Epitomising triumph over adversity, the first Our Broken Garden album since 2010 not only embarks on a newly minted sound – a gloriously warm and nuanced brand of slowburning Scandinavian soul - but Danish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Brønsted has dug deep to provide an emotional tour de force that shines as a beacon of resilience, resistance and perseverance. Welcome to Blind.
Blind’s musical DNA is warmer, more inviting and even poppier than previous album, The Golden Sea: Brønsted suggests that it’s down to Blind’s backing tracks being recorded live (as opposed to Golden Sea’s layered production), but also that she was particularly taken with ‘70s singer-songwriters (she namechecks Neil Young, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell) and contemporary R&B, especially FKA Twigs. And it’s that intimacy, and candour, which also makes Blind sound that much warmer and inviting. Brønsted’s life was on the line, and her creative response has thrown her a lifeline. As she prepares to play the first Our Broken Garden shows in ten years, the darkness of her recent past recedes further, but she is sanguine about the present.
“With deep feelings of loss but also deep feelings of love,” Brønsted concludes, “the good thing is that I am not caught in the numbness of my ‘safe’ everyday life anymore. Every day is new - which is not necessarily pleasant and without challenges. But I feel free - and one of the gifts is that I have found places that I didn’t know existed in myself. And that I have found peace here – until the next crisis comes around, I guess!”
Blind’s musical DNA is warmer, more inviting and even poppier than previous album, The Golden Sea: Brønsted suggests that it’s down to Blind’s backing tracks being recorded live (as opposed to Golden Sea’s layered production), but also that she was particularly taken with ‘70s singer-songwriters (she namechecks Neil Young, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell) and contemporary R&B, especially FKA Twigs. And it’s that intimacy, and candour, which also makes Blind sound that much warmer and inviting. Brønsted’s life was on the line, and her creative response has thrown her a lifeline. As she prepares to play the first Our Broken Garden shows in ten years, the darkness of her recent past recedes further, but she is sanguine about the present.
“With deep feelings of loss but also deep feelings of love,” Brønsted concludes, “the good thing is that I am not caught in the numbness of my ‘safe’ everyday life anymore. Every day is new - which is not necessarily pleasant and without challenges. But I feel free - and one of the gifts is that I have found places that I didn’t know existed in myself. And that I have found peace here – until the next crisis comes around, I guess!”
TRACK LISTING
1 Prelude
2 Lost
3 Rain
4 Fallen
5 Shameless
6 Prayer
7 Waltz
8 Words
9 Sirens
10 Storm
11 Crown
12 Found
13 Lies