•
Rating:
If you throw a coin into a very deep well, you're unlikely to hear a distinct noise. Yet something happens down there: water moves. Sophie Zelmani's music has that same kind of sound. Her voice, like a coin, sends imperceptible circles into the darkness, remaining there, circumscribed yet vital like the precious good on which they rest.
When the charming Swedish singer-songwriter tried to get noticed, alas, it was 1996. Someone said that in other times, an album like "Sophie Zelmani" (1995) would have competed just as successfully alongside the most acclaimed works of Tracy Chapman or Tanita Tikaram. Unfortunately, then, on the surface, raged the most vigorous storm that music could know, and there was plenty of water. It didn't matter that this was being thrown in faces by the bucketful by the likes of Morrissette, Jann Arden, Sheryl Crow, and company shouting. There was no place for Sophie's timid Nordic approach. Fifteen years later, I come back to think that there will always be someone who wants to draw from that well: sparse music lovers with a very (too) sensitive soul, highly respectful connoisseurs or admirers of the intricate female universe. In short, men who for a moment decide to leave the testosterone to watch the game to dedicate themselves to listening to one of the most heartfelt and at the same time defenseless voices in the folk scene.
It is barely possible to explain Sophie's success. Her music has never shifted its own balance much: delicate guitar ballads. Sometimes some slight acceleration. Preferring one work over another isn't "musically" relevant since the works are equivalent both in terms of arrangement choice and production. I choose "Precious Burden" (1998) because it contains the title track and "Leaving": two moments, in my opinion, of very high lyricism. It is precisely in the simple but profoundly deep words, released with a thread of voice, that lies the secret of an artistic longevity in niche, otherwise suffocated by an unoriginal proposal and a mildly virtuous voice.
Sophie Zelmani over all these years has spoken of herself, addressing almost exclusively the male universe, involving other women only when it could adorn the scenario of her stories. Without anger or will to overpower. A woman who loved her band and her partner-producer Lars Halapi since she was a young girl and who asks to be heard not because her world is better than others but only because she is convinced that, sooner or later, the water from a well might become useful for someone.
"so I'm leaving while I'm stronger / I'm leaving because our love is younger"
Tracklist and Lyrics
04 So Long (04:02)
I've had my eyes
I've had my ears
To steal from you
For so long
For a sake to fill
A hole that kills
You've made me thrill
I've been wandering
So long
So long, so long
Now I burn
And when i yearn
Everywhile without you
Is too long
Now i'm free
You made me see
It had to be so long
Because I'm gonna love you
So long
So long, so long
08 Goodbye (03:21)
I told you once, I did
after you'd taught me how
It was never in my beliefs
I'd ever learn to say goodbye
How do you say goodbye?
How do you get free?
I tried to say goodbye
but you're still here with me
If you say you never were here
that you've never been seen
I wonder where we'd stand
if you had stayed in my dreams?
You should have stayed in my dreams
You should have made me stop
'Cause you were just a dream
since I had given up
How do you say goodbye?
How do you get free?
I tried to say goodbye
but you're still here with me
How do you say goodbye?
How do you get free?
I tried to say goodbye
but you're still here with me
Loading comments slowly
