On September 22nd, Afternoon Records will release Sissy Wish’s Beauties Never Die in North America. In the meantime, fans can check out the video for the track “Float,” which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album.
www.myspace.com/sissywish
Beauties Never Die is the third full-length album from Bergen, Norway native Siri WÃ¥lberg (a.k.a. Sissy Wish). Produced by Norwegian super-producer Jorgen Traen (Sondre Lerche, Kayzers Orchestra, Jazzkammer, The Golden Serenades,) the album is a daring step forward, affirming Sissy Wish’s place at the forefront of Scandinavian music that is turning pop music on its ear. Banishing the banjos and acoustic guitars of her earlier work, Sissy Wish immerses herself in a world of cheap synthesizers, toy organs and fuzz-guitars.
From the shimmering title track and enticing, incendiary “Dwts” to the layered, richly atmospheric “Tokyo” and the ultra-infectious album closer, “Book,” the record is filled with complex structures, unexpected arrangements and supremely catchy melodies, all backed up by hot, pumpy drums and bass.
“Beauties Never Die balances maturity and wonder,” notes Pitchfork, going on to say: “she writes wordy songs full of unexpected hooks and lengthy melodic phrases, mixing exuberant shout-outs (‘Do a rockabilly dance, baby take my hand!’) with quotable insights (‘It takes a lifetime to find out if someone’s happy to see you every day’). Walberg even tapdances a solo on ‘Ya Ya Ya’. Bolstering her charming eccentricities is an eclecticism that makes Beauties wide-ranging yet surprisingly cohesive, as if its emphasis on electronics has allowed her simultaneously to indulge and to give shape to her every whim.” (You can read the full review at http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12841-beauties-never-die/.)
Sissy Wish made her debut in 2003 with the stunning Six Feet Tall EP, comprised of four tracks recorded in two days with members from Norway’s eclectic group Sister Sonny. As an unsigned artist, she received an unprecedented amount of airplay on radio in her homeland. Her full length debut, You May Breathe, was recorded with legendary Norwegian producer HP Gundersen and won her a Norwegian Grammy (Spellemannsprisen) in 2005, shortly after the release of her second album, Tuning In. Several U.S. tours followed, which included performances at SXSW in 2007 and 2008. The U.S. dates not only exposed her to a new audience- they sent her in a dramatically new direction artistically.
“I just ate up my band and put them in a box, so I could afford to go on a tour in America. So suddenly I turned out to be a purely electronic duo from Mars, and the response from the crowd was fantastic!” says Sissy Wish. “I’m constantly trying to challenge myself, my music and my live shows.”
With Afternoon Records’ release of Beauties Never Die, U.S. audiences will now hear the album that grew out of the approach she forged on her tours here. The track listing for Beauties Never Die is as follows:
1. Float
2. Dwts
3. Beauties Never Die
4. Yayaya
5. Tokyo
6. Milk
7. Table 44
8. Dependence
9. Music On The Radio
10. Book
###