Friends I moved the biography. I kinda hate biographies actually........
8th June marks the release of the 4th solo album by Brighton-based cult singer songwriter Astrid Williamson. Here Come the Vikings is an electrified jolt. A compelling and mercurial collection of tracks, that veer across abrasive rock, pop, torch song and soul.
Previously in respected indie trio Goya Dress, her first group released 3 striking EPs Bedroom Cinema, Ruby and Glorious before their lone LP Rooms, which was produced by John Cale. Her subsequent solo outings Boy For You, Astrid Williamson, and Day of the Lone Wolf are sparkling gems (thanks in part to Boy For You producer/engineer Malcolm Burn, whose credits include Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Peter Gabriel, and U2).
Here Come The Vikings is Astrid’s most aggressively gorgeous record to date. Hailing from the remote Shetland Islands she’s been pegged as a folkie on her last couple of efforts, but that disregards both her sprawling versatility as an artist and her previous inclinations to rock to ecstatic, exhilarating heights.
Not so with Here Come The Vikings - electric Astrid is back with a vengeance. As for her motivation, Astrid simply shrugs, “I was losing 10 BPM every album, so I thought I'd plug in and sort things out.” Mission accomplished. ‘Here Come the Vikings’ certainly doesn’t dawdle.
It’s worth noting that the muscularity of Here Come The Vikings is due to Astrid gigging with her current band for the past few years, and the addition of new guitarist, Steven Parker. The veterans are Richard Yale on bass, Christian Parsons on drums and Mark Treffel on keyboards. There are also appearances by Nick Powell from Oskar, Belle and Sebastian cellist Sarah Wilson, while trumpeter Guy Barker adds a touch of old school pedigree, having played with Frank Sinatra and Nile Rogers.
‘Shut Your Mouth’ (Until I Kiss You) is straight-up power pop, and it thrashes its way through a rousing chorus, delivering a straightforward command with delightful, insistent glee. “Please forgive my pursuit of you, but I have to get to the root of you” is typical Astrid verve. The soaring rocker ‘Slake’ has a more peculiar format; she wrote the lyrics in blank verse, with mostly ten syllables per line. She explains, “It was interesting to impose some structural limitations.”
Sexuality, arch wit, and adroit wordplay are just a few of the strings to Astrid Williamson’s bow; another is her nonchalant propensity for aesthetic juxtapositions. It’s hard to resist imagery like “Winter spreads its fingers ‘round your throat” on the trembling ballad ‘How You Take My Breath Away.’
She takes it to extremes in the gleaming, shimmering ‘Sing the Body Electric’, a celebratory bit of British Invasion-tinted pop that manages to reference both poet Walt Whitman and visionary structural engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. On ‘Pinned’, Astrid plays sombre piano and strays into lyrical nihilism: “Here's another sun sucked into the grave horizon.”
‘Store’ tacks in an opposite direction of hope: “Everybody needs tomorrow if you didn't give up today.” While ‘Eve’ languorously plots a man’s inability to end a relationship: “She’s so soft as she wraps herself around you, as oblivion ushers you down, you feel resistance, somewhere off in the distance”.
The album nails its creative zenith with the breathtaking ‘Crashing Minis’. A blurry amalgamation of slinky torch tune, morose serenade, wry surrealism, aural collage, sound-effect pastiche, and sonic death pact delivered with a sprawling, detail-rich grandeur that would make Radiohead proud.
As a vocalist, Astrid has collaborated with the likes of Electronic, Arthur Baker, This Mortal Coil/Hope Blister originator Ivo Watts-Russell and European luminary Stephan Eicher, plus arranging and producing the music for British comedian Robert Newman’s recent History Of The World Backwards BBC TV series. Running her own label, Incarnation (via One Little Indian) she has released electronica album Air Conditioning by Oskar.
In the studio Astrid writes, produces and arranges everything she records. A multi-instrumentalist and classically trained pianist, you’d never know it when she launches a blast of scrappy, post-punk guitar.
Here Come the Vikings is a bold, self-assured effort resplendent in detailed artful arrangements exploring the mysteries of faith, gender dynamics, and physical love. Even without the electric component, the music remains vivid and full of emotion.