Lene Marlin
Another Day

THE REVIEW

Put the reader on, play "Another Day" and close your eyes. Throughout the album, Lene will do nothing but enchant with her grace, her fairy-like voice, and her guitar plucked with such care, as if she were plucking you. Four years have passed since the mega-success of "Playing My Game," the great pop album of the late millennium, and now "Another Day," a sort of chronicle of her post-success depression. Indeed, one cannot ignore the dark and sparse moments of her little songs, even when pop prevails (the opening "Another Day", perhaps the worst song on the album, with a somewhat banal and radio-friendly melody that anyone could have written, "You Weren't There", the first single of absolute beauty with an all-catching chorus despite its sadness, and the almost rock of "Disease", in whose chorus Lene claims to feel fine, but we know that's not true). The lyrics talk about ended loves (the unsettling trip hop of "Fighting Against The Hours", in which a nearly gloomy Lene battles against time because her lover forgot about her), disappointments ("You Weren't There", the splendid "Faces", with a sweet and solitary intimacy that captivates, seduces) and death (the concluding "Story", to dedicate to someone who is no longer there, and then, "My Love", a great touching and sparse love song composed with just an acoustic guitar and Marlin's voice... dedicate it to your boyfriend or girlfriend, and they'll marry you! In conclusion, "Another Day" is a beautiful, sparse album that hurts, penetrates the skin like a needle, and leaves no escape, but it is also dangerous for those who fell in love with the first album, which was not desolate. In this chapter, listening to it, one can easily imagine her Norway haunted by ghosts and Lene singing in a cabin by the fire, continuing to whisper in your ear.