Einar Solberg
16

First solo attempt for the singer of Leprous. Expectations were high, a great album was expected from the frontman of one of the most innovative bands of the last fifteen years… and indeed we got it! Einar Solberg makes the most of all the experience and the sense of research and experimentation carried out with his own band and puts it all into play in this “16”.

Yet when you see the cover you think of a commercial pop album, no image or artistic composition to serve as a calling card, Solberg poses in the frame of a not too visible lake looking at a fixed point, probably the unknown. A tacky and failed choice, let's leave portrait shots to pop singers, to the likes of Laura Pausini, Biagio Antonacci, and Eros Ramazzotti, these choices shouldn't even cross the mind of a serious artist. But then we remember that a disc (or a book) isn't judged by its cover and that this is Einar Solberg, not just anyone.

Solberg takes cues from his band's latest productions and places them in an even softer context geared towards sophisticated art-pop. If in the more recent releases of Leprous the guitars had dissociated from the metal of their early days, here they fade even further losing even that residual roughness; they never return to metal territories, not even when in “Splitting the Soul” old friend Ihsahn chimes in with a scream (just one of many guests featured). Truth be told, guitars aren't the main stars here; the focus is elsewhere. The strings take center stage, more or less in the same way they have in the latest from Leprous, we can say that they, too, in the way they present themselves, are imported from the band's assets; they often sound delicate and soothing, yet at the same time sick and dramatic, other times they are instead blazing and even deafening (in a positive sense, of course), and in some instances are plucked with absolutely surprising results, yet never ordinary, never truly symphonic, don't expect classical opera entrances. Alongside them is a skillful use of electronics, also never conventional, sometimes with harsh sounds sometimes more refined and dark.

Einar's voice is instead a comforting confirmation, neither a step forward nor back, it whispers elegantly in the slower parts and spits out rage when the tempos rise, let's say in this aspect everything is quite predictable yet always tremendously enchanting; perhaps it’s worth highlighting the return to greater emphasis on the more aggressive side, in the latest work with Leprous the stylistic choices led him to more distinctly favor the whispered style.

More sensational surprises are not excluded, one above all “Home”, where vibrant brass, strings, icy electronics, and even rap intertwine, masterfully delivered by Ben Levin (formerly of Bent Knee), who had already done so startlingly in Richard Henshall’s album; a mix of modern pop, swing, and rap that certainly cannot go unnoticed.

In conclusion, in “16” Einar Solberg does not forget where he came from but promotes greater independence, he sits perfectly halfway between what he has done with the band and the territories he can explore autonomously. The result is, in any case, stunning, one might have expected yet another unpretentious solo album, yet it's one of the top albums of the year.