There’s a sure form of pop track that performs at homosexual golf equipment that you simply don’t actually hear wherever else. You already know the sort: Punchy, vaguely European, empowering in a completely uncomplicated manner—songs like Ava Max’s “My Head & My Coronary heart” or Rita Ora’s “Bang Bang,” ok to bounce to and catchy sufficient to sing together with, however which principally serve to fill time between “Dancing on My Personal” and “Stronger.” For higher or for worse, Norwegian pop singer Sigrid excels at this particular form of banger: Her new album, Learn how to Let Go, options at the least three of them. It’s a helpful expertise—“homosexual membership filler” is a wholly legitimate, and I might argue important, class of pop track. However as Learn how to Let Go proves, true neutrality is hardly a strong basis for a profession as a pop star, and, for essentially the most half, Sigrid is working with little else.
Sigrid has at all times been one thing of a clean slate; initially, it was a part of her attraction. Her debut album, 2019’s Sucker Punch, was emblematic of a brand new crop of “actual lady” major-label pop stars clad in informal matches and sporting natural-look make-up however largely promoting the identical form of paint-by-numbers girlboss pop as their catsuit-wearing counterparts. Nestled amongst moments of faux-rebellion like “Don’t Kill My Vibe,” although, had been a few actual gems: ecstatic, smile-through-the-tears Eurodance songs like “Don’t Really feel Like Crying” and “Strangers” that instructed that, had been her sound to turn out to be little much less standard, Sigrid might at some point emerge as a pure inheritor to Robyn.
Learn how to Let Go, disappointingly, stymies that thought. On this album Sigrid may truly be described as an anti-Robyn—a pop star who trades solely in uncomplicated feelings and simple endings, who has seemingly misplaced any sense for lyrical stress. On almost each track, Sigrid introduces some form of downside (she’s misplaced her sense of self, she’s scared to maneuver away from house, and so forth) solely to resolve it by the primary refrain, normally by embracing her personal flaws or, sometimes, merely trying on the brilliant facet.
Opener “It Will get Darkish” typifies the benefit with which Sigrid strikes by the world on Learn how to Let Go. “I’ve by no means ever been this far-off from house/And on their own/It will get darkish,” she sings over booming, stadium-pop drums, earlier than promptly getting over it: “It will get darkish/So I can see the celebrities.” By the point the interminably dim-witted Carry Me the Horizon collaboration “Unhealthy Life” rolls round 9 songs later, metaphor has gone out the window: “It’s only a unhealthy day, not a foul life.” Again and again, these songs current disappointment or discomfort as issues to be solved, relatively than emotions to interrogate and even simply sit with. Though Sigrid sings every line as if it’s eye-openingly profound, anybody searching for depth on Learn how to Let Go will shortly discover themselves within the shallow finish.
