Einar Solberg – 16
Einar Solberg – 16
Inside Out Music
Release Date: 02/06/23
Running Time: 70:00
Review by Rory Bentley
10/10
Ah the old solo album. The chance for a musician to branch out and apply their instrument to brand new styles and sonic textures, or sometimes an indulgent load of bollocks. You never know whether you’re gonna get a Greg Puciato or a Corey Taylor. Thankfully this time we’re getting a Greg. Known for his majestic soaring pipes and dog-bothering high notes, Leprous frontman Einar Solberg is in the elite tier of Rock and Metal vocalists, talented enough to sing the phonebook and give you a tear-on, yet ambitious enough to never rely solely on his monster chops. On “16” we get the full gamut of everything we’ve come to love about the gold-throated Norseman and a whole lot more we didn’t even know we wanted!
If the album just stayed in the sonic space of the gorgeous title track that opens proceedings, I’d have been absolutely fine with it. Solberg’s crystalline tenor conveys delicate vulnerability over beautiful analogue strings that recall Danish singer songwriter Agnes Obel at her rustic best, with Classical arrangements and contemporary Pop combining to spine-tingling effect. The string arrangements here will go on to be one of the galvanising elements to this often sonically disparate album, and they are used to rhythmically accent the pulsing almost Trip-Hop beats on next track, “Remember Me” along with some blissful layered falsetto backing vocals. This is the first time Solberg really lets rip and the closing moments feel like he’s pulling his heart out of his chest, albeit rather gracefully.
After this strong opening we get hit with the sublime “Beautiful Life” where Einar delivers a truly stunning performance hitting angelic high notes that carry warmth and depth. Many vocalists tend to thin out when reaching for their upper register, but the richness of Solberg’s chest voice comes all the way with him, even when shifting into the stratosphere. Towards the end he also provides some much-needed grit to his tone that brings the song to a soaring crescendo. The fact that this vocal masterclass is delivered over a trance-like synth backdrop that is a cigarette paper away from being a low-key club banger is this album in a nutshell- placing an iconic and familiar voice in an unfamiliar setting.
If you’re familiar with Leprous it’s obviously no great surprise that Einar puts in a hell of a shift behind the mic, but I guarantee anyone listening to ‘Home’ featuring rapper Ben Levin wasn’t expecting a Hip-Hop flavoured RnB rager! On paper the idea of someone so heavily associated with melancholic Nordic Prog Rock going anywhere near HipHop sounds like a recipe for Chris Cornell “Scream” levels of embarrassment, but guess what- it fucking rules! With some seriously head-nodding beats, off-kilter juddering synthesised horns and some sick bars from Ben Lee, the song is a chart-ready triumph. Einar knows his way around a nimble vocal run, belting out melismatic Soul like some Prog-Rock Justin Timberlake. It’s mental in both concept and execution but it totally works!
After ‘Blue Light’ delivers some decidedly less leftfield but incredibly satisfying torch-singing Jazz, lead single “Grotto” brings some heft and sinister darkness to the mix, with Industrial vibes evolving into Eastern melodies and sky-splitting vocals that could slot perfectly into Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”. One of the more rousing and Leprous-adjacent cuts, this is Solberg’s version of ‘Kashmir’ and it’s flipping fantastic; and the eclecticism does not stop there. ‘Over The Top’ is louche and bombastic in equal measure with a cinematic arrangement that I’d happily hear on the next Bond soundtrack. The strings are drama personified and the foghorn blast of shirt-ripping vocals at the end would make Shirley Bassey herself raise a glass of champagne out of grudging respect.
Frequent collaborator and Emperor main man Ihsahn lends his theatrical growl to ‘Splitting the Soul’ with grimy Electro Beats and blood-curdling shrieks over tremolo strings, satiating listeners looking for something more conventionally intense, but it is mammoth closer ‘The Glass is Empty’ that is the pure essence of intensity. Every vocal and instrument is dialled up to 10 in both volume and hot-blooded passion. Einar conveys desperation and anguish to break out and leave an emotional prison, expending every last drop of energy in his body before the album abruptly cuts to silence and leaves you with your jaw on the floor and fragments of your skull and brains over every wall. At least that’s what happened to me, figuratively speaking of course, my wife would kill me all over again if I damaged our new sofa.
Some people might say that the album is too long, but some people can fuck off. It is definitely a daunting first listen as there’s an almost overwhelming amount of ideas being thrown around, but repeated visits will unlock a smorgasbord of artistic expression and eclectic sonic experimentation. This is everything a solo album should be, giving you the idiosyncratic voice of the artist and putting it into new and exciting situations with consistently dazzling results. “16” is as good as anything in the Leprous back catalogue and album of the year contender for me.
‘Home’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. 16
02. Remember Me
03. A Beautiful Life
04. Where All The Twigs Broke
05. Metacognitive
06. Home
07. Blue Light
08. Grotto
09. Splitting The Soul
10. Over the Top
11. The Glass is Empty
LINE-UP:
Einar Solberg and all his mates
LINKS:
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