Ida Maria Sivertsen has a powerful voice that conjures so many classic-rock associations it's a wonder she doesn't get lost amid all the references. On her debut album, Fortress Round My Heart, she howls like Janis Joplin, with a bit of soulful vibrato that almost sounds like grandstanding. She rasps like Courtney Love, similarly steeped in cigarettes and alcohol but without the manic aversion to actually making music. Ida Maria effervesces like Katrina Leskanich-- of Katrina & the Waves fame-- which brings to mind one-hit-wonder pronouncements (but what a hit). Chrissie Hynde is another touchstone, not only for her commanding presence but for her assumed sexual authority as well. And then there's that curious Sting reference in the album title, but let's give her the benefit of the doubt and call it a coincidence.
Besides, Ida Maria is singing, not actively imitating anyone. Her performance on Fortress conveys a distinct personality that draws on a range of styles and influences but remains completely her own, whether she's confessing to being falling-down drunk or expressing her reservations about god. She conveys existential anger, sloshed self-doubt, religious whimsy, romantic compulsion, and determined vulnerability all with equal persuasiveness, and by all evidence, she has a blast from start to finish. Backed by a road-hardened band, her songs burst with pop-punk fury and fun, none more violently than the brain-smasher opener "Oh My God". The song begins with tense guitars and Ida Maria's throaty voice defying you to "find a cure for my life," then turns strident on the chorus as if trying to be heard by the deity himself. She stutters and taunts through "Morning Light", stumbles triumphantly through "Queen of the World", and masks darker thoughts and boozier desperation with the fizzy bubblegum exuberance of "Louie" and "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked". "Keep Me Warm" is the only ballad, but she navigates with just as much confidence, making the song all the more heartbreaking by addressing a cup of coffee and a pack of cigarettes
Ida Maria has been kicking around her native Scandinavia and most of Europe for a few short years now, sharpening her singing and songwriting through almost constant touring. If there's a complaint to be made about Fortress, it's that the album sounds too sharp and too focused, polishing away some of her rougher edges. "Drive Away My Heart" never really revs its engine, but any song that follows "Oh My God" could be accused of traveling at too safe a speed. Later, she muses about god on "Stella" and "See Me Through", which never sound as incisive or as insightful as her own drinking and dating habits. The latter track ends Fortress on the only true bum note, rising and falling dramatically but never really getting across Ida Maria's sense of doubt. Still, overreaching is a forgivable flaw on an otherwise accomplished debut, which usually sounds so confident in its creator's insecurities.
