On
Selvutsletter
,
Jenny Hval
and
Havard Volden
honor
Lost Girls
' exploratory roots by venturing into unfamiliar creative methods. Largely written for a live showcase in Lyons, France, their second full-length trades in a different kind of immediacy than their previous work. The improvisatory pieces that made up
Feeling
Menneskekollektivet
felt like experiences happening in real time; here,
Hval
Volden
's varied approaches let them play with the past, present, and future. On concise, discrete tracks like "With the Other Hand," they seize the moment while emphasizing the constructed, heightened nature of performance itself: "I am strange/Don't look away/Take it in,"
breathes over
's rippling guitar. It's one of several pieces that rank among
's most pop-oriented music since her solo album
Blood Bitch
. Similarly,
uses its pop tropes in challenging ways rich with allusions. "June 1996" sets its bittersweet recollections to the deceptively smooth sound of strummy mid-'90s indie pop. Deep,
David Lynch
-like synths soundtrack the chaotic "choreography of living" on "Timed Intervals," where
uses the rasp in her voice almost like a distortion pedal. The dance beats used to transcendent effect on
's
The Practice of Love
return on
, this time joined by careening guitars on the highlight "Ruins," an elegant version of noise rock that ties together her memories of growing up in a "Bible belt nowhere" with musings on the inevitability of mortality.
lives up to its name -- a phrase coined by
that translates to "self-effacer" -- thanks to the shifting perspectives in
' songwriting.
is a detached observer of history repeating itself on "Re-Entering," noting, "They demonstrated here in the '50s â?¦ Soon they will have to demonstrate again/I can smell it." On "Sea White," she takes the viewpoint of a character longing to erase their transgressions, and as the song slowly traces its emotional journey with queasy electronic drones, it's a reminder of
' hypnotic power when they stretch out.
is some of the duo's most expressive and widest-ranging work -- and given how committed
are to experimentation, that's saying something. ~ Heather Phares