Sara Berg is a Stockholm singer releasing her first album in the UK and with it comes the best album title of the year, that’s for sure. “Noir-ish electropop” her publicist says and it fits pretty well. Definitive oldstyle europop supported by modern techno elements. A lot of her melodies and ideas are traceable back a few decades to the likes of Dusty Springfield and the Pet Shop Boys (‘Crawl Back From Under’) though without the brash production. This collection of 12 tracks is much more sparse and considered than any 80’s or 90’s pop conveyor belt produced and Berg’s vocals are proved fragile in such open surroundings but the overall simplicity does create a feel for this album all of its own and its definitely more black than white, leaning heavily on the melancholy angle. More for a late night train journey than a dance, It’s synth pop music with an aura. Some may say it’s pretentious pop but there is something about this and its general emptiness that offers up some quite agreeable textures. She says it’s a concept album based on recent years experiences of success and failure… with more of the latter feelings weaving their way through these tracks.
Apparently reared on A-Ha, The Cure and PJ Harvey, Ms. Berg’s own offerings carry a lot of those influences quite far up front without falling into look-a-like mode with. True a few of the tracks ham it back too close to the 80’s, the title track being one of them, but overall this proves to be something strangely clinical, sincere and listenable. If you have ever found very, very early Human League (before the pretty girls), you will like this.(
