Review: Ragga Gröndal

Ragga Gröndal - Astrocat Lullaby (Bella Records)
With the success of Bjork, GusGus and Sigur Ros, Iceland is well and truly established as a source of new and interesting music, and I don’t know whether it’s just good fortune or perhaps grand design, but the artists that we get to hear in the UK rarely swim too close to the mainstream. So it is with Reykjavík singer-songwriter Ragga Gröndal. Her songs, sung in English, straddle several styles from jazz to folk, but at no point does she pander to conventional contemporary expectations.

Of course, there are influences on her music, and as “Astrocat Lullaby” plays out, it’s artists such as Kate Bush and Tori Amos that come to mind. That’s decent company to keep, and Gröndal bears the comparison well, because her songs are good enough and she never settles into one signature style. The album begins with “Bangsi”, which is propelled by assorted percussion, with Gröndal’s voice carrying the melody – think a calmer, gentler Creatures. The title track is perfectly twee, with her voice a shade higher and the accompaniment decidedly tender. “If Cats Could Talk” is the sort of piano ballad that, in more adventurous times, would have found a home on daytime radio, and sold a million. Unfortunately those days are long gone, but that’s no reason for us to go without.
http://www.rgrondal.com/
Rob F.