Jenny Hval
Viscera

Release Date: 2011 | Tracklist

There could be no better title for Jenny Hval's first eponymous release, Viscera. The tracks, each equally as an individual and as a cohesive effort, are contemplations fleshed out with notes and words. Yet, these inner dialogues are not the product of careful preparation but rather of climactic release. It is an album crafted from ideas that were presented as they came, unhindered and virgin. Each track focuses around a central thought or idea which usually manifests itself in the vocal lines rather than the work of the instruments. Yet the brilliance of the entire work lies in the ability of each element to bring itself to the front of a passage just when it's needed and never overstaying it's welcome. The gentle steel lines of the guitars weave in and out and around the undulations of Hval's voice while the omnipresent pulse of the heart moves it ever forward. Such is the power of presenting these raw ideas as they appear. Not once is the music lost in its own inspiration. It is the uncanny presentation of the human soul as it courses through the veins of the physical body.

Yet what makes the album more than just another dark visage of female-voiced folk is the subtle viciousness with which it was crafted. The lyrics are almost comically sexual, so much so that it would seem out of place was their presentation not so completely engaging. Both the sounds and the words embrace one another in a passion that would be difficult to describe with any impulse other than sexuality. The rests and climaxes mirror a desire that is both as deeply personal and as it is universal. These desires are instincts presented as violently beautiful, a sort of power that is drawn of pure sensation rather than reflective thought. Viscera is a work that is resonates so profoundly because it is so unabashedly human. It is the sonic representation of how we have felt and how we wish we would feel.

It is a hymn of simply living.

Tweet

Recent reviews by this author
Jungle Rot Skin the Living	Ceremonium No Longer Silent
Utumno Across the Horizon	Current Value Platinum Scatter
Mortification Mortification	Drexciya Grava 4

user ratings (144)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

4 excellent

Rank: #169 for 2011