New Dreams

An album by JFDR

After three years of waiting for its release and then nine weeks more  (it was held in quarantine by The Royal Mail!) my copy of this CD has finally arrived at Flippist World Headquarters. It is a fine effort and, unlike some of her recent work, the lyrics are intelligible (mostly).

Jófríður Ákadóttir has been one of my favorite Icelandic singer/songwriters for over ten years. With a body of work that belies her young age of 25, she has released three full-length albums with Pascal Pinon, four with Samaris, as well as numerous one-off collaborations with a wide variety of artists from all over the world. Her breathy soprano is an acquired taste, as is her unique phrasing, dropped words, singing against the beat and moody chord changes. In this album she fearlessly plays around with the building blocks of production: compression, gating, echoes and other standard studio tools. This album definitely has most distinctive audio footprint. The lyrics, as is her wont, are concerned with exploring her maturity in relationships and dealing with personal growth. Some of the strongest tracks (My Work, Gravity, Dive In) have been released before in different forms but are a perfect fit here; the New Dreams version of My Work is stunning. Most of the tracks do have a some ‘frosting’ on them—(there are over twenty musicians and production assistants listed on the jacket!) but some are quite spare—whatever works, I guess.

All in all, it was worth the wait. New Dreams is another step forward for this musical pioneer.

UPDATE: New Dreams has won the Reykjavík Grapevine “Best Album of 2020” award!

Image: Anna Maggý