Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval is going to make you think. Her music exists on the artier side of the spectrum, and for some reason her compositions bring to mind Matthew Barney‘s Cremaster series of films. Perhaps that’s because she tackles themes that also involve the body, adding in gender politics and philosophical ephemera that may or may not have been chosen for its shock value. This isn’t the “shock” of Miley Cyrus or Howard Stern, though, its more akin to a Scandinavian hybrid of Ani DiFranco and CocoRosie, with perhaps a touch of the ethereal spirituality embraced by Dead Can Dance.
Produced by longtime PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, her latest album — Innocence is Kinky — draws upon nebulae as diverse as mass murder and the Paris Hilton sex tape (which, of course, was in its own way a varietal of mass murder). The title track wastes no time kicking listeners in the teeth, as you’ll hear for yourself. Hval is now on tour, playing tonight at Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum before a handful of East Coast dates.
