FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Sigrid — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Modern-Day Queens

Sigrid

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I am returning to an artist…

who I have written about before. The amazing Sigrid (Sigrid Solbakk Raabe) released her latest album, There’s Always More That I Could Say. The third studio album from the extraordinary Norwegian artist, it follows 2022’s How to Let Go. I think that Sigrid’s latest album is among the best of the year. I will end with a positive review of it. I am going to start out with some recent interviews with Sigrid. I am going to start out with an interview from The Independent from July. It was published around the release of Sigrid’s single, Jellyfish.

“Jellyfish” is the first time that Sigrid will be credited as a producer on a song. “It doesn’t really change a thing,” she said of the milestone. “I’ve been co-producing my whole career. It’s just this time I’m being credited for it. That’s the difference.”

Sigrid was 19 years old when she released her debut single, 2017’s “Don’t Kill My Vibe”, kicking off a period in the spotlight that she described as “intense” and “amazing”.

“I’m so thankful for all of it, obviously, but it’s kind of going through a washing machine,” Sigrid continued. “And I think on the second album [How To Let Go] , I really wanted to be taken seriously and I put a lot of heavy pressure on myself to write serious songs.”

Sigrid said she is “having fun again” on “Jellyfish”, adding: “I think you can hear it in the song. I’m not trying to sing perfectly.”

“I take the piss out of myself a bit with the new music as well,” she said. “I’m trying to not take myself too seriously and allow myself to not always be the hero in a situation.”

The jubilant new single will be one of many she performs during her set at Latitude festival, which she first played in 2017.

“I love any festival that has a bit of nature in it,” she said of its bucolic setting in Henham Park, Suffolk. “I remember rowing in a rowboat to get back and forth from backstage.”

Imploring festival-goers to catch her set, Sigrid said: “My humble opinion is that we do deliver. I give my all on stage. It’s my favourite thing to do and to see everyone singing along is super special and makes me feel confident again.

“I’m a bit of a word of mouth artist but when you go to a show of mine, you know you’re going to have a good time”.

Perhaps the first album where Sigrid is in control and can craft something true to her, DORK spoke with Sigrid in the summer. Her boldest and most exciting album yet, I do feel that this is the start of an exciting new phase for one of the greatest modern artists. Twelve years into her career and the incredible Sigrid has taken her music to another level. There’s Always More That I Could Say is without doubt among the very best albums of this year:

“I love this record,” Sigrid states. “This is my favourite album.”

“It’s crafted with so much love and attention to detail. It’s a deadass serious album, but it’s also a funny one. I take the piss out of myself a lot, and some songs sound a bit stupid but are smart at the same time. It’s just a fun record; I just love it so much!”

The sonic details – whether in the form of Peter Bjorn and John-inspired drums on ‘Jellyfish’ (one for all the FIFA 08 fans out there), lo-fi synth-pop on ‘Hush Baby, Hurry Slowly’, or the simply massive pure-pop opening track ‘I’ll Always Be Your Girl’ – are matched by the mechanical elements that help expand on the emotions that thread this album together, most obviously seen through the tracklist.

“I’ve worked really hard on creating this journey sonically and lyrically, but also with placing songs in the right place. It’s explaining how chaotic it is going through a break-up; it’s not straightforward, it’s a lot of turns and twists and one step forward and five steps back, but it’s also a really funny journey too!”

And that’s the real heart of the record: fun. In fact, that’s really been the heart of Sigrid’s career so far. Her breakout single, ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’, was a tongue-in-cheek jab at a producer who tried to dictate her journey, while her other hits, ‘Strangers’, ‘Don’t Feel Like Crying’, and even ‘Head on Fire’ with Griff, all highlight her ability to transform emotionally fraught topics into unadulterated pop classics.

The difficulty that came with even choosing singles for this album cycle, though, shows that Sigrid is only growing stronger.

“I don’t want to sound cocky, but it was really hard to pick singles for this campaign because all the songs are great,” she grins. “I feel like it’s the first album I’ve written where I genuinely feel like there’s no fillers.”

“But ‘Jellyfish’ is one of my favourite songs on the record, if not the favourite, because it’s a song about friendship. I think that it is so important to have a song about friendship on a record that is a lot about love, because who’s there for you when the shit hits the fan?”

“It’s also one where I was having fun recording it and not focusing on singing perfectly – people know I can sing, I know I can sing, I don’t need to prove that to anyone. We recorded in a cosy attic studio about five minutes from here, and it felt like something new, something different. And then having ‘Fort Knox’ next was like boom! This feels like a part of my DNA.”

In case it wasn’t clear already, Sigrid isn’t interested in creating something you’ve heard before, and she’s certainly not interested in playing by someone else’s rules. Part of the joy she found in making this record was discovering new ways to be creative, using every inch of her twelve-year career to dissipate writer’s block and give some old ideas a second chance.

“The worst thing a person can say to me when I walk into the studio is, ‘You should make another ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’,'” she explains. “Because that’s not how it works; I couldn’t write a song like that now because it wouldn’t be authentic – I’m not the same person I was when I wrote that song.”

She continues: “The writing session culture in London, LA, even in Oslo – where you walk into a studio with two new people and the ambition is to have a fully finished produced demo with lyrics, melody, and initial production done – made me the writer I am today, but it got to a point last year where I was really tired from writing in that way.”

“So I put the process on hold for a bit because I was just tired. I just couldn’t see the vision. I had a few songs finished, but it wasn’t until last summer that I properly discovered ‘Jellyfish’ and thought there was something there. I went into the studio with Askjell Solstrand, who I wrote ‘Dynamite’ with ten years ago, and I just felt like I was a kid again. There was no pressure. We didn’t have to finish a song in a day. It just didn’t fucking matter if I made a banger or not. That’s when the album really came together.”

In this way, ‘There’s Always More That I Could Say’ became simply a part of Sigrid’s life instead of a forced project. It was an album born of passion, not productivity. Instead of grinding out tunes in a high-pressure stop-off at a writing camp, songs grew out of everyday experiences and inspirational moments.

“I think I would feel pressure no matter what job I did, because that’s just who I am, but I have to give myself a reality check. I’m so lucky to be doing this job, to have people excited to hear this album. Sometimes I do think, like, what actually is my motivation for doing this? And, honestly, on those days, I think it’s just because I’m good at it. I’m good at writing songs, I’m good at playing live, and I’m good at creating things to create joy.

“But actually, it’s because I love music, and I’m taken aback that, twelve years into my career, music still makes me so emotional. I can’t fake the excitement I have at going on stage, or the stars in my eyes when I think about all the songs that are yet to be written as well – y’know, there’s always more that I could say!”.

Prior to getting to a review of There’s Always More That I Could Say, there is a review from The Pink News that I want to spotlight. Sigrid’s third album was born out of heartbreak, rage and liberation. Fitting in with some of the queens of modern Pop in terms of themes and a slightly messy album, Sigrid is so real and revealing on this album. Not sugar-coating anything, Sigrid has released her most powerful and affecting album. Though there is plenty of fun and pleasure throughout:

“She can be difficult in relationships, and she’s “definitely owning up to it” on the album. “I think people probably think of me as the ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’ girl, which is great,” she stresses, but the track came with the expectation that she would forever be tough but easy-breezy in the face of conflict. “I’m also the type of person that will have all these great comebacks two hours later.”

The reason she’s finally able to put all these thoughts on record, she suggests, is the current state of pop. “There’s a lot of room for being more messy,” she says, reeling off a list of her “favourite pop girlies” – Charli XCX, Zara Larsson, Lola Young, Chappell Roan, Olivia Dean – who are proudly and forthrightly putting their vulnerabilities and contradictions into their music. “I have felt like I can, on a personal level, be more open and funny and satirical and take it to the extreme,” she says. “[There] hasn’t been the space for pop to not be so rigid, but the rule book is [now] thrown out the window. There are no rules anymore for what is pop.”

Since her major breakthrough – she won the BBC Music Sound of 2018 poll, previously won by Adele, Sam Smith, and most recently, Chappell Roan – Sigrid has been whisked out on stage at every summer festival going. “I have the best job in the world,” she urges, but points out: “There is always summer somewhere in the world.” After releasing How To Let Go in 2022, she toured continuously – “I never really stop touring” – and ended up, though she doesn’t use the phrase exactly, probably a little burnout.

Until now, everything has been quite deep for Sigrid. Historically, she has been a self-confessed control freak, shy, and painfully self aware. After starting piano lessons aged seven, she tried to quit, fearing the hobby wasn’t cool enough for her peers’ approval. She first wrote songs after her brother, also a musician, invited her to perform with him, but told her she couldn’t sing the Adele covers she’d grown comfortable with.

In 2022, she told an interviewer that she admired Taylor Swift for her business-like approach to the music industry: “That’s not calculated, it’s just smart. It’s smart to have a plan,” she said. But with There’s Always More That I Could Say, she’s finally learning to let whatever happens, happen.

“You have to be OK that the plan can change. You never know what’s going to happen around the next corner,” she says. Earlier this year, Ed Sheeran was performing in Oslo, and invited her to perform on stage with him. Afterwards, she asked if she could support him on tour. He dutifully agreed, and she’s heading over to the US with him in July. “That’s how the industry is. It can change so quickly.”

Almost ten years into her career, and Sigrid is finally learning to roll with the punches. When she’s not delivering them, that is”.

If some reviewers feel the second half of There’s Always More That I Could Say is weaker than the first and the album does not meet the highs of her earlier work, I would say this is Sigrid’s most confident, unapologetic and personal album. Maybe there are nods to contemporary Pop artists, though there is plenty of individuality and distinction throughout. Sigrid’s latest album needs to be heard. This is what DORK said in their review of There’s Always More That I Could Say:

“Nobody has ever doubted Sigrid’s credentials as a pop star – you don’t get to perform with Bring Me The Horizon or support Ed Sheeran on tour if you don’t have fans in high places. That doesn’t mean, though, that she always gets the praise she deserves for always pushing her own boundaries and working to become the best artist she can.

This third album is still the same Sigrid, an artist full of passion and uncontainable, fizzy enthusiasm, except this time she comes with added self-assuredness. Playing freely with tempo, structure, and genre, ‘There’s Always More That I Could Say’ is a journey that underscores Sigrid’s confidence in what she does best: make pure pop bangers.

Even then, she plays at the fringes of what pop can be. Effortlessly switching from the folk-slash-indiepop of aptly fluid single ‘Jellyfish’ into the piano ballad title track, before sparking back to life with crunchy dance anthem ‘Fort Knox’, the record is elevated to more than simply a pop record. Of course, she still does sunny, shiny pop better than most – most notably in huge opening tune ‘I’ll Always Be Your Girl’ and ‘Do It Again’ – but with enough versatility and tact to keep the whole project fresh and exciting.

All the sugary sweet sonics and high BPM rhythms are balanced out by lyrics that showcase the vulnerability of someone who was in the throes of heartbreak when first writing for the record. ‘Kiss The Sky’ paints a picture of someone tearing their own personality apart, even while trying to present as rock-solid, while ‘Eternal Sunshine’ is a yearning, cathartic cry for better times to present themselves.

Sigrid has never seemed more liberated or more confident. She doesn’t care what you think, and this album is all the better for it”.

An artist I have loved and respected since her 2019 debut, Sucker Punch, I love her new album. I have never seen her live, though she plays London’s Roundhouse on 13th March, and that venue is near where I live, so I will try and come see her play. A modern-day queen that I wanted to salute, make sure you follow and listen to Sigrid and her amazing music. She is one of the best and most interesting Pop artists on the scene. I feel like she has a lot more to say. It will be fascinating discovering…