What I'm Listening To: EINAR SOLBERG - 16
Norwegian frontman for LEPROUS unleashes a powerful solo debut album.
This might be Album of the Year for me so far, friends. It dropped yesterday and I can’t stop listening to it, as new layers keep revealing themselves.
“All this healing, still revealing…”
Norwegian band LEPROUS’ frontman Einar Solberg has composed a concept album of unbearable emotion, beauty, rage and lament that has to be experienced at full volume all the way through. His voice takes all of the frustration, anxiety and post-traumatic feelings of the past & present age — for me personally, and even collectively — and channels it into sonic psalms of therapeutic release. Whenever the songs begin to feel similar to themselves, a surprise is unleashed — branching from soaring melodic pop metal into elements of hip-hop, synth, orchestral arrangements and all-out metal-metal, from gentle piano melodies to cries of rage. And Solberg’s voice alone is a force of nature to be reckoned with.
You may not even realize you were broken by the end of listening to the full album, but you will leave it feeling repaired.
I shan’t post a single track here, for I cannot choose a single one to indoctrinate you. It’s best to start with Track 1 and just experience the songs in sequence. Plus there are no audio-only YouTube embeds I can find, and the videos for the songs don’t really mesh with the glory of the audio by itself.
So experience it here, wherever you get your tunes:
https://einarsolberg-artist.lnk.to/sixteenID
This is not the first time Solberg’s music has resonated with me, for I’ve been a fan of his band LEPROUS for a few years now already. In particular, my gateway track was one I will embed here for you to experience. In this case, the music video for the song enhances the experience through its visuals and layers — plus seeing the band actually execute the minutia of the music itself is an added bonus.
Their song & video Alleviate brings me to my knees — and touches upon my own lived experience with anxiety. To have external voices in your head mixing with your own internal self is a nightmare, and the emotions that come with it are all too familiar for me and many other souls I know. The way the double images in this video intertwine with visual metaphors of drowning and the sonic rhythms that accompany the lyrics — and ultimately the unbearably powerful drop at 2:30 — is so transcendent, I really do not have words for it.
I hope this song touches you enough to repair a few rips and tears that may need mending.