Christian Kjellvander – Hold Your Love Still (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Christian Kjellvander – Hold Your Love Still (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 45:09 minutes | 473 MB | Genre: Folk Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Tapete Records

“I want to give you this and ask for nothing in return.” Naked but for a soft blanket of reverb, Christian Kjellvander’s tender voice invites us into his latest creation, the swooning Hold Your Love Still. His first solo album since 2020’s About Love And Loving Again finds the Swedish troubadour in a reflective mood, exploring the difficulties of an honest life amid the entanglement of capitalism, and imploring us to nurture that faltering hope for a better tomorrow.

After delivering the autobiographical About Love and Loving Again, a dark and immersive set featuring lengthy song runtimes, Christian Kjellvander returns with his second album of the COVID-19 pandemic, the more outward-looking Hold Your Love Still. Touching on topics including climate change and wealth inequality, it’s not exactly a pick-me-up, but among its stretches of grim existentialism are flashes of hope, affection, and even optimism. The album’s audience-silencing opener, “Western Hemisphere,” is a nearly a cappella entry, with the songwriter’s resonant baritone accompanied only by eventual string tremolos, the occasional series of piano notes, a strummed guitar here, and an organ or bass phrase there. Inspired by the power of nature, it contains the title phrase “Hold your love still,” which is emphasized by the sound of thunder. After getting our attention, Kjellvander brings in a full band for “Notes from the Drive Between Simat and Alcoi,” a striding folk-rock travelogue set against Spanish landscapes and the area’s labor movement. The somber “Baleen Whale,” with its brushed snare and plodding chord progressions, identifies with a beached whale, and, later in the track list, the howling “Disgust for the Poor” offers a comparatively more urgent and exasperated critique of society. As for the record’s more optimistic moments, “Terns Took Turns” is essentially an affectionate tribute soundtracked by melodic guitar, light strings, and a brushed snare that switches to sticks for the chorus. Kjellvander brings it home with the album’s most hopeful track, the tender, birdsong-injected “Dream 2066,” which envisions a future among friends, whistling on the street, pink and brown color accents, and “a sense of responsibility” and community. Serious and timely, it’s another poignant outing for the Swede, made even more so by its moments of warmth.

– Marcy Donelson

Tracklist:
01. Christian Kjellvander – Western Hemisphere (02:52)
02. Christian Kjellvander – Notes from the Drive Between Simat and Alcoi (04:55)
03. Christian Kjellvander – Baleen Whale (05:29)
04. Christian Kjellvander – Terns Took Turns (04:58)
05. Christian Kjellvander – Disgust for the Poor (04:09)
06. Christian Kjellvander – On Wine and Jesus Christ (06:18)
07. Christian Kjellvander – We Are Gathered (09:03)
08. Christian Kjellvander – Dream 2066 (07:20)

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