Has there been a cooler Dane than Elias Rønnenfelt? His band Iceage initially debuted as a gaggle of brooding teenagers making ragged hardcore in 2011 earlier than primarily morphing into Nick Cave and The Dangerous Seeds, Jr. a few decade in the past. Since that shift, Rønnenfelt has delighted in embracing the misplaced artwork of the rockstar persona. Debauchery and extra are actually his muses; his songs often recount a lust for medication and lust as a drug, typically on the similar time. “In any case I feel it is evident/That I’m God’s favourite one,” he as soon as sang with convincing confidence. Whereas vulnerability sometimes nonetheless rears its head in his music, he amplifies that ache and heartbreak to such a level that these songs might double as Rimbaud poems.
So who’s Rønnenfelt outdoors of the band and bandmates he’s performed with for 16 years, since he was 16 years previous? Heavy Glory, his first solo album, offers one reply: It’s a portrait of a world-weary man merely making an attempt to navigate a less-than-kind panorama and recent love. It’s all there within the opening track “Like Lovers Do”: twangy acoustic guitar and a shuffling drum beat, Rønnenfelt describing the form of wicked character that’s a basic in his songwriting, beneath the guise of a beer corridor singalong that conceals one thing darker in its jaunty rhythm. But the true shock comes on the finish, as he asks the track’s topic to step away from all that and to “spin me round/like lovers do.” His directness and sincerity is surprising: no hedonism in his want, simply tenderness. “Anyone not near you/Isn’t any pal of mine/I simply wanna be near you,” he sings afterward “Shut.” A blunt, nearly pleading honesty has crept into his songwriting. Is it an odd match? It’s surprising for certain. Nevertheless it’s a posture he totally leans into, permitting for a romanticism that opens up new depths in each his lyrics and songcraft.
Nation and Americana are the throughlines for the album (although with out ever invoking a particular period or time); The Flying Burrito Brothers are actually simply as a lot a reference level for his sound as The Gun Membership. The stylistic inspiration is becoming for an album largely conceived on the street in 2022, as Rønnenfelt performed venues throughout Europe, usually writing songs one evening and debuting them the subsequent day. This solo mission is a chance for Rønnenfelt to department out from the ferocity of his important outfit: If Search Shelter was Iceage at their most superb and monumental, Heavy Glory is the counterbalance, an try to seek out magnificence within the small and insular. “Soldier Track” is idol worship, an early Leonard Cohen pastiche, right down to the finger-picked guitars and mournful cello. “River of Madeleine,” the sparsest monitor on the album, balances hitting a all-time low towards the quiet pleasure of managing to outlive just a bit longer. What may need been a grand tragedy together with his different band, right here—with its round, twinkling piano riff—turns into perhaps the prettiest factor Rønnenfelt has ever made.