Extraordinary

Forgive me for being a vinyl lover here, and for maybe coming across like a bit of a braggart. The reason is what you see above, Eska’s latest in a super special edition that she made available on Bandcamp. A hand stamped white label in a generic white sleeve that she decorated herself. Super small edition of five. This is one of them.

The only slight downer was supplied by Royal Mail (or, less likely, Swiss Post) – the package must have been thrown across the channel, being quite heavily dented when it arrived. Oh well. At least the vinyl made it in one piece – considering the impact it must have had that’s a small miracle.

The album itself is the exact opposite of a downer. It’s a powerful one, it’s massively creative, uncompromising, pretty much a singular piece of work. So much for spoilers. The latter, being singular, unique, is actually a risky categorization. At least for an album that sounds like it’s close to the work of a few musical greats.

Like Prince, for example. The first tracks on this album feel like Minneapolis had been exchanged for London, the little Prince exchanged for a magic woman and the sound of “Around The World In A Day” injected with a small, but raw dose of Black Rock.

Is that a problem? Well, if the album went on like that it might have been slightly objectionable. If it weren’t so totally Eska at the the same time, it would be even more objectionable. And if it weren’t so astonishingly good as well, it might be very objectionable.

So – no, she absolutely doesn’t continue like that. By the end of the album you will have understood that Eska is perfectly at home anywhere between Prince and Kate Bush, vocally, and easily compatible with anything between solid Rock and fragile Folk.

Maybe that’s not even that magical. Maybe, in a way, that’s very ordinary. That’s what being a woman is, for her. Strong and independent, resilient and clear-headed, but thoughtful, reflective, vulnerable as well. At one moment amazed at what she is able to accomplish, withstand, create and discover, shopping for donuts, detergent and diapers the next moment.

Just listen to the background vocals on the opener “Down Here” and the almost paisley-sounding “Daddy Long Legs”. Did someone send The Revolution across the ocean? To quote Prince: Damn! But as mentioned – things start going all over the place afterwards. The massively energetic and raw “Magic Woman” has the power to make Lenny Kravitz envious, or even have Jack White listening with admiration. Probably both.

“All The Way Down” is something like Modern Psychedelic Electronic Folk Pop Rock, starting out soft and quiet and ending in electronic distortion, bashing, loud, altogether unique, followed by a small interlude that is wonky and weird and beyond “Bob George” but somehow reminding us of the wonderfully wacky moments on some Prince albums. All the way to the title: “Klofrezaf”. Or “Catfish Blues”, an interlude from somewhere under the water and under the church roof at the same time.

It’s really intriguing how an album that is so all over the place is so coherent. Is that a touch of Trip Hop and Björkish extravagance floating through “Snoozing Friends”? The track does whatever it wants, smoothly turning into a choir piece and finally dissolving in some kind of acid arpeggio. Fascinating.

Medieval touches, an air of “She’s Leaving Home”, light and lovely high notes that make a Kate Bush-comparison almost unavoidable – “The Edge” is from yet another Eska dimension. It’s becoming clearer with every song: she took her time to explore every facet of her self and turned what she found into songs. The more unhinged side on “Fazerfolk”, the reverse of that little interlude earlier, almost grungy and easy to get to your head with all the distortion and the nagging vocals from the back of the brain.

Towards the end of the album it gets somewhat ethereal again, suddenly harps are taking over, and another vocal performance that leaves us wondering how this powerful woman can sound so much like an Icelandic fairy. Eska certainly doesn’t have to prove to anyone that she is an incredibly gifted vocalist. But this album shows a range that is – at least to me – a revelation.

Funny, in the end, how she returns to the beginning of the album, with a one minute encore that could have been stolen from Prince’s vault and made to fit the world of a magic woman.

Just to be sure, and returning to what has already been said – this is not an album that imitates anyone or even just pays respect to anyone. At least not overtly. Every bit of “Ordinary Life” comes across as an original statement by a woman that has left behind whatever she might have thought she should be doing and exchanged it for something that comes from nowhere but within her. It’s a declaration of independence.

Release for review:
ESKA – THE ORDINARY LIFE OF A MAGIC WOMAN – EARTHLING RECORDINGS – EARTHLING02LP

Get the album on Bandcamp: Click