Stream: Sondre Lerche, ‘Sentimentalist’

Seraphina Lotkhamnga on September 5th, 2014

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Norwegian-bred, Brooklyn-based crooner Sondre Lerche has always given pop music a quirky spin; this skill has yielded six jazzy yet highly accessible studio albums, a original movie soundtrack (“Dan In Real Life”) and a special live album (“Bootlegs”). Lerche returns with “Please” on Sept. 23, via his own imprint Mona Records. Heavily influenced by his recent divorce, the collection of new songs is significantly weightier than anything in his current repertoire. The lead single “Bad Law” and its accompanying video help visualize the path to self-destruction through dichotomy. From the cheerful verses to the harsh choruses of discord, a struggle is present, and Lerche presents this again in the incredibly lush “Sentimentalist.” It’s a painstakingly honest ballad where he repeatedly sings, “I’ll be damned if I fight / I’ll be damned if I don’t / In the end, would it count?” Its thick layer of reverb-drenched guitar, slow-burning percussion, and twinkling piano riffs all swish around together like the last of the strongest yet most tear-infused whiskey anyone has ever gulped down. “Sentimentalist” abruptly ends after a wall of fuzz takes over the audio senses, but it’s hard not to think of glass shattering within the silence that immediately follows. This may be Sondre Lerche’s most poignant album yet.

||| Stream: “Sentimentalist”