Some music from Scandinavia: Anders Enda Barnet is a Swedish singer-songwriter, who is doing alternative pop songs. On 21st May 2021, he is releasing his new album “You Are The River”. Here are my thoughts about it.
Anders Enda Barnet – About The Artist
Anders Enda Barnet is a Swedish artist from Onsala, South of Gothenburg. The singer-songwriter is doing songs, which are best regarded as alternative pop music ones. His civil name is Anders Göransson. In 2015, he released his first album I Was Quiet, which also includes the song The City Is Dark and Silent so far streamed some a quarter million times on Spotify only. Thereafter, the seems to have been some sort of hiatus – the following single is Sunshine Hits Your Eyes (2019), which is already part of the You Are The River album. He is also working as a producer.
Anders Enda Barnet – You Are The River – Track by Track
The eight track album lasts 34 minutes.
1. Sunshine Hits Your Eyes
You Are The River starts with a song, which has already been picked as single. Sunshine Hits Your Eyes has a nice listen, but sometimes comes with rather surprising electronic sounds in the background. This is rather annoying to me, I feel that the general melody is really good and catching.
2. Easy Way Of Living
Easy Way Of Living comes with similar elements like the opener: a catching melody, on which Göransson puts different kinds of sounds. The song is a bit of darker than the song before. I overall prefer the sound more than in the first song. A key reason is that in this song, there feels to be a better fit of all musical elements to me. Good.
3. You Turned Off All The Lights
It is getting dark in the third song – as You Turned Off All The Lights. The flute is the most present element in this song, apart from the vocals. The song has a country–folk style. Again, I ask myself if the song would be better without all the additional elements.
4. A Heavier Lid
The songs of You Are The River are definitely versatile. In Heaver Lid, Anders Enda Barnet surprises me with panpipes sounds. This time, I really like the element – it adds a nice touch to the piano ballad.
5. Easy To Leave
This song is in fact a lovely slow track, which could be a fantastic soft rock ballad. Unfortunately, a sheer never-ending synth tone feels to destroy the whole atmosphere. Thus, to me the song itself feels like a great one – the production turns it into a complete fail.
6. You Are The River
After this distracting sound, the title track feels to be a really relaxing song. A very catching song, which feels like a late 1990’s cover of a melodic 1970’s classic. Anders Enda Barnet is able to do such good music. Really good listen.
7. High Like Mountains
High Like Mountains is a nice compromise between the slightly distorted, almost synth-psych pop feeling of some of his recording and his lovely voice and songwriting. Especially the chorus comes with a high potential to stick in your head.
8. Back To Back
The album closes with the instrumental back to back, in which Anders Enda Barnet mixes piano melodies and rhythmic sounds (majorly cymbals) with the style the album has been representing in the seven tracks before. This really leads to a nice finish.
Anders Enda Barnet – You Are The River – Spotify
Here is You Are The River on Spotify:
Anders Enda Barnet – You Are The River – My View
I struggle with You Are The River. An artist needs to do music she/he feels comfortable with. But somehow, I just cannot stop thinking that Anders Enda Barnet is simply wasting chances. The basis of his songs is so good, but the elements he puts on top of them too often distract me. Might be a matter of taste – but this simply prevents me from a higher rating in this review.
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