The Norwegian singer and lyricist Jenny Hval once wrote a masters thesis on Kate Bush, and her academic approach to pop music permeates her new album, Apocalypse, girl. “We had a recording process that was 70% art criticism and philosophical discussions,” Hval wrote in a verified annotation, “plus many coffees.”
Those caffeinated brainstorming sessions produced lyrics that draw from 1970s political theory, everyday experience, and, on lead single “That Battle Is Over,” the banalities of TV pundits and self-help books. “I wanted it to sound like a karaoke session,” Hval annotates, “that takes up all of these voices that I don’t agree with but which are also stuck in my head.”
Read Hval’s annotations to learn more about her upbringing in the Norwegian Bible Belt, where “Soft Dick Rock” comes from, and what Hval found while living in New York last year (hint: not much).
