Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch

Jenny Hval
Blood Bitch
2016
Spotify

The pure avante-garde world is often a confusing one. Take for example this new album from Norwegian singer song writer Jenny Hval for example: on Blood Bitch she seeks to reconcile the worlds insane aversion to menstruation blood and how that diminishes literally half of our population, and also Vampires. If that is not enough of a head trip to peak your interest then perhaps this is not the record for you. However everyone else will end up on a strange and in depth journey with Hval. The melodic comes into focus on the first full fledged track "Female Vampire". The pulsing back beat is not bassy but instead almost has this wide yet thin sound to it. There are moments where it feels like maybe you should be dancing but then again maybe not. The confusion throughout the record is frustrating yet fascinating at the same time. Blood Bitch is far more melodic than her last record, Apocalypse, Girl, though it does fall into some of the same traps like lingering on one moment or another for to long. Certainly no one will accuse Hval of going pop but despite the in depth subject matter She does make an effort to at least make the record sound very pleasant.

I wrote this when reviewing her last album and it remains true on this one as well, this feels a lot less like music and much more like spoken word. "Untamed Region" is a keyboard, Hval's distant vocals, and her speaking over the entire track. It is quite mesmerizing and beautiful to listen to, yet it does not feel like music. I simply cannot imagine a world where you would put on that kind of song and listen to it more than once. With Hval's music you tend to get the ideas she is trying to get across and you appreciate Her for it, but you can't imagine coming back again. Some people have called this one of her more pop centric records, which it is, yet it is still so far away from anything that you would call pop music that making the comparison seems silly. "Period Piece" is one of the more poignant tracks on the record, and really brings the whole theme of the album together. "The Plauge" however is just fucking screaming and so gratting. Blood Bitch is incredibly interesting yet I still cannot find myself truly enjoying it. Maybe that says more about me than it does about Blood Bitch.

6.9 out of 10