Jenny Wilson
Love And Youth

Who is Jenny Wilson? There’s no trick and no deception, and deception isn’t even hidden under the heavy makeup that characterizes most of this 30-year-old Swede’s public appearances. Coming from an indie group (First Floor Power), the now mature Jenny decides to embark on her first real solo venture (after a series of collaborations, most notably with The Knife), shutting herself in the studio, playing and programming all by herself. The result is a title, Love and Youth, a bit dissonant perhaps with the maturity achieved by the artist. Any dissonance dissolves if we choose to translate it as "emotion and innovation", "passion and freshness", the first sensations that emerge upon initial listenings. There is indeed all the strength and energy needed in every single piece; there is all the anger, the emotion, and the right amount of cunning to emphasize that she, Jenny, is ready to take on the world, and to do it alone. As mentioned, she curates every single piece on her own, plays all the instruments present, and sings with a strikingly "normal", regular, yet extremely restless voice.

Harp and an insistent electronic build support her in the first piece "Crazy Summer", a piece that opens with much (too much?) suffering for a piece that the title would have described as "light". The summertime theme leaves the haunting choirs of the introduction to reclaim the colors that characterize it in "Summer time", with enough Afro influences, more choruses, shouts, and whistles to make everything much more concrete and carefree. It is followed by the disco hit (in Germany, the Knife remix is a hit) "Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward", nailed to the cushioned atmospheres of the '80s and supported by an excellent video. Jenny talks about rules not to be followed, and her voice always between afflicted and bold seems to make us think of the turning point she has recently imposed on her life, a turning point she rightly takes all the credit for. To let us know, if we haven’t figured it out yet, her love for the length of the titles of her pieces, Jenny includes in this album an excellent "Bitter? No I Just Have To Complain". A question and the prompt negative response, proving, as said a moment ago, her desire to make the world know she is ready, that the worst is behind her. The tension rises with "Would I Play With My Band", music box, subdued guitar, and electronic loops to consecrate the sweetness of her voice, almost whimpering at times, as if she couldn’t bear a weight. But ready choruses support her here too, making this piece the most delicate and precious of the album.

Yet another great episode with the title-track, very folk, very determined and lively, leading to a finale where the (fake) mean "Hey What’s The Matter?" (another question) and the wonderful close represented by "A Brief Story" stand out, perhaps underscoring the fact that everything Jenny has told us in this album is just her brief story, to which many more pages are to be added. It is no coincidence that this last song does not have the semblance of a song that might close an album: did Jenny intentionally switch the first and last track precisely to show that the tension is defeated and that she has only the carefree nature of telling her own story left?