Listening to the debut album from Norwegian folk songwriter Louien - AKA Live Miranda Solberg – is a pretty intrusive experience. The songs take inspiration from the grief process and her own sorrow following the death of her father, and are at times too personal for us to fully connect.
Live says that these songs were 'easy to write, but so hard to revisit'; there's certainly a numbness that runs through the album which makes it difficult to give it repeated listens. So much of the work is concerned with depression, isolation and denial. The other stages of grief are boxed away to be dealt with later; so much so that even for a folk album it's a little too restrained at times. The excellent Broken Heart Love comes closest to venting and screaming at the sky, while The Fool, Heart and Mind Alike and Endless Love are tracks that stand alone and let us feel as though we are starting to scratch the surface. The album has beautiful musical flourishes, and Live has a rueful turn of phrase that manages to turn pain into art. None of My Words is clearly a cathartic piece of work, but there are times when we can never penetrate through to the core of her emotional vulnerability, and that makes it a frustrating listen.
Live's fragile and glacial vocal makes her a brilliant talent in the folk world but at times these songs are so introspective, that it feels as though we are trespassers into her musical journal, rather than being invited in.
Groupie rating 3/5
