This is…

The eleven tracks on This is… clock in at just over 30 minutes. Like so many other aspects of her work, Nordenstam doesn’t believe in taking things too far – less is decidedly more. But in that short span, the fifth album from the reclusive Swedish songstress offers just about everything you’ve come to expect – sweet plaintive vocals and complementary laid back music.

‘Everyone Else In The World’ could be mistaken for no one else. ‘Trainsurfing’ – one of the brasher tracks – is just about as close to rocking out as Nordenstam is likely to get. A restrained but insistent drumbeat drives the track but the vocals are vintage Stina. ‘The Diver’ begins with a bold drum riff but quickly gives way to allow a warm and muffled lullaby, on a chiming and charming piano line, to ease in.

As always the arrangements aren’t obvious – the background metallic clanging in ‘So Lee’ and the wah wah washboard echoes of ‘Circus’ would be excessive elsewhere but sit comfortably here. This is… is generally understated and undemanding. It’s neither particularly exciting nor in any way challenging. But the way Nordenstam can do lush without resorting to massive production can only be admired as is her uniquely oblique lyrical slant.