Over the course of four solo albums, Ane Brun has quietly nudged a place for herself alongside Sweden's foremost singer-songwriters. Unlike most of her contemporaries, though, the transplanted Norwegian's success isn't owed to her fashionability (she isn't) or her dynamism as a songwriter (even at her most arresting, she verges on adult contemporary), but rather, a workmanlike dependability. A typical Ane Brun song favors spare instrumentation, slightly broken sentiment, and an unwavering devotion to prettiness; aside from occasional detours into folksy MOR and unlikely covers (her warbly take on Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" is currently ad agency catnip in Europe), it's a formula she's stuck to over the years with dogged consistency.
Changing of the Seasons feels like the record where Brun's lack of range catches up to her. Where her previous productions have benefitted from creating chasms of space through reverb and cavernous silence, this album-- a breakup record-- feels weighed down by the same tactic. Much of it is laid so bare it can be difficult to locate the songs within: For all the irrefutable prettiness, there's precious little to hang on to; a lot of the songs are strung-together tapestries of incomplete hooks, rustic guitar riffs, and generous dollops of strings and backing vocals that don't coalesce into anything more.
Which isn't to say there aren't highlights; they just aren't very immediate. Opener "The Treehouse Song"-- an exception, and possibly the best thing she's ever done-- raises false hopes by channelling vintage Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton for a moment of uncharacteristically robust folksiness. It turns out to be a red herring, though; by the next song, Brun's back to her torpid, tiptoeing ways. It's a look she barely relinquishes for the remainder of the record, and while single "The Fall", the broody "Ten Seconds", and the promising but unrealized "Don't Leave" earn honorable mentions as best in breed, its ultimately Brun's dourness-- not her music-- that ultimately leaves the most lasting impression. If it's a downer you're after, there are better records than this.
