Anna Ternheim – Before The Dawn (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Anna Ternheim – Before The Dawn (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 17:08 minutes | 187 MB | Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Folk, Female Vocal
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal Music AB

On September 22, Anna Ternheim releases the album Before the Dawn, a cover album containing a total of five songs. The album began when Anna was still living in New York when the pandemic hit and paralyzed an entire world. The streets were empty and there was a generally eerie atmosphere. Then and there the idea of a cover album was born. She tells:

“I didn’t have a clear direction when I started, but I was pretty exhausted after a long tour and didn’t feel like starting to write my own. I started listening to music from my upbringing, songs that made me feel good, tried new chords, phrasing and pulled the songs into my world. This EP is definitely a nostalgia trip for me”

Before the summer, the first interpretation from the EP was released, the song “Love Is The Drug” which she performed at the Polar Prize as a tribute to Chris Blackwell, one of the winners of the Polar Prize 2023. After that came Anna’s version of “I´m On Fire” which originally performed by Bruce Springsteen and Ultravox’s old song “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”. The entire album is made together with Andreas Dahlbäck and Johan Lindström. She continues:

“Good and unexpected things always happen when we’re in the studio together, all three of us, and in front it’s a lot of fun!”

Anna Ternheim has previously had great success with just covers. I am of course thinking of Broder Daniel’s monster hit “Shoreline”, which in her version became a fine-tuned and melancholy piano ballad, and in my opinion the only other version of the song to count alongside the original.

I normally have a bit of a hard time with just covers. One moment I can think that the song is too similar to the original and thus serves no purpose, while at other moments I can think that it differs TOO much from the original and lacks relevance precisely because of that. However, I think that, like “Shoreline”, she succeeds in the task here.

Opening “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes” was perhaps the song I was most afraid of before hearing how she tackled it, but just in time for the first chorus I realize that my fears were not justified. Despite the toned down, she manages to keep a drive going and the song takes on a life of its own without, for that reason, differing too much from the original version.

Even the more guitar-based Bruce Springsteen song “I’m on Fire” has something ‘Ternheimish’ about it. The gospel choirs in the chorus of the aforementioned “Love is the Drug” lift an otherwise rather boring song, and the closing two tracks both work in Anna’s versions.

You are actually almost surprised at how good an otherwise rather clichéd song like “Heaven” by Bryan Adams sounds in Anna’s version. In the chorus, she is helped here by John Engelbert from the band Johnossi, who reinforces the vocals and adds additional dimensions.

All in all, an unusually fine work in an otherwise difficult genre.

Tracklist:
01. Anna Ternheim – Love Is The Drug (03:18)
02. Anna Ternheim – Heaven (03:46)
03. Anna Ternheim – Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (04:01)
04. Anna Ternheim – I’m On Fire (02:55)
05. Anna Ternheim – Before The Dawn (03:05)

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