Hafdis Huld – Variations
Hafdis Huld - Variations
Release Date: Out Now
Icelandic alt-pop queen Hafdis
Huld has dropped her fifth studio album, ‘Variations’, and it is a collection
of covers of her favourites songs which normally I wouldn’t have much time for
but I wasn’t aware of this fact before I gave this a listen. And that is a very
fortuitous thing as this is an extremely beautiful collection of songs given
the unique Hafdis Huld treatment. The album gets underway with Dolly Parton’s ‘The
Bargain Store’ which chimes out with a mandolin and the whispy, icy vocal of
Huld – about as far from Parton’s warm southern drawl as you can get but with
just as much honesty and beauty. Next up is ‘One Moment In Time’ which takes
the Whitney Houston classic and breaks it down to an acoustic late night picking
session by candlelight and suddenly an 80s power ballad is given renewed
fragility and a sense of real desperation which is missing in the more popular
version.
Much like a talented mechanic,
Hafdis Huld can strip a song down to its basic components, do away with the unnecessary
trimmings and then rebuild it with the pure essentials – it is beautiful to
behold. The third song on this collection, ‘I Want To Break Free’, is a great
example of this talent as the John Deacon penned Queen classic emerges
nervously from the shadows of its original shell as a timid but quietly
determined song that hangs around a piano line that breaks me every time. ‘Songs
of Love’ (aka the Father Ted theme) is given a new impish quality while Barry
White has never sounded so light and airy as Huld’s version of ‘You’re My
First, My Last, My Everything’ makes him sound – like Nina Persson serenading your
parents at the renewal of their vows.
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| Hafdis Huld |
Tina Turner’s ‘Simply the Best’
would work brilliantly at a wedding under this treatment with a country
inspired melody and some sumptuous atmospherics. In fact, most of the songs on
this collection would work well alongside nuptuals or a John Lewis ad, not
least Huld’s version of the Roberta Flack ballad ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your
Face’. Things take a slightly darker turn on ‘Here Comes the Rain Again’ as the
Eurythmics classic is given a sparse working over and then ‘Slow Learner’ by
Boo Hewerdine takes us to that point just as dawn is breaking and the truths of
the night are settling all around you like snowflakes on a lawn.
Now, education time for me – I had
no idea that Giorgio Moroder was behind the classic Berlin power-ballad ‘Take
My Breath Away’ but he is. Huld’s take on this one has a real feel of the First
Aid Kits about it and it’s just beautiful – a word that doesn’t do this
anywhere near justice. I’ve heard a few versions of Haddaway’s ‘What Is Love?’
but never have I heard one given the Florece + the Machine treatment like this
and it works so well that you could be forgiven for thinking this song came
from Iceland.
The album closes with a pair of
songs that encapsulate the energy here perfectly. First up, ‘You to me are
Everything’ gets the banjo treatment and you just feel the love oozing out of
the headphones like sunshine through a morning window. Secondly, Loudon
Wainwright III’s ‘The Swimming Song’ has a sense of playfulness and pure joy at
its heart that is hard, nay, impossible to resist. Hafdis Huld is a talented
songwriter and performer in her own right, there is no doubt in that, but on
this album she has recorded a collection of songs that she loves for herself
and that comes pouring out of every note, every word and every melody. Do
yourself a favour and get a copy of this to lift your spirits – its perfect for
a Saturday morning while you’re making pancakes, speaking from experience.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/Hafdismusic/