Säkert! - På Engelska
Did I say that Girls' Generation was the album in this list which stretched the limits of being released in 2011 the furthest? I did? Well, somehow I completely forgot that there was an album ahead of it which entirely consisted of songs recorded into a different language. And it's a somewhat more significant change to me than theirs from Korean to Japanese.
Annika Norlin was responsible, as Hello Saferide, for my favourite album of 2008. Säkert! is her Swedish language band, and this is a record of their songs (mostly from their second album) rerecorded in English. That's what På Engelska means. Apparently they are particularly literal translations designed to give a Swedish feel but in English, but given that one of the most touching lines on More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide was 'years later I can still vision that forehead' I'm happy to largely think of this as a new Hello Saferide album.
It's a bit less country leaning than Short Stories but still heavy on a full band sound and a long way away from the acoustic twee-pop of her début. "Honey" and "Weak is the Flesh" feature jagged eruptions of guitar which go beyond anything previous from her and it also has a few songs which largely hold musically to a minimal loop and very effectively put across a sense of numbed melancholy, in particular "November" and single "Can I", which is a new and effective feel.
As charming as the music remains, what is mainly in På Engelska for me is how it combines with Annika's fantastic lyrics. Which is why the Swedish versions of her albums did little for me. Her words are a touch more abstract and less autobiographical narrative heavy than previous, but remain witty, self-aware but not in an overstated way, intimate and sometimes beautifully poetic too.
"Dancing, Though" is like Robyn's "Dancing on my Own", with Annika just as determinedly dancing to hide (and escape from) her heartbreak, except relocated to a wedding. It includes both 'Right where your shoulder meets your neck is where I hid all of my dreams' and, directed to the wedding singer 'I would beg you to stop singing but you're covering up the sounds of telephones not ringing'. "The Lakes We Skate On" zeroes in on one crucial line from "Parenting Never Ends", '[people] depend on me now/If they only knew how thin the ice they walk on is' and offers a fuller exploration of the insecurity and ways of getting away from it, as well as skating on literal lakes. 'We're walking on the crust on the ice that broke under you when you were young', it starts, and then 'There lies a melancholic joy in knowing you'll never again be with those who know who are' which says it all about escaping to somewhere where people can believe in a different you.
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