Is there a path forward for female singer-songwriters after Brat Summer? Charli XCX certainly created a moment with her glossy, instantly catchy, and emotionally complex album, released in June. BRAT managed to be a personal statement of self-indulgence as a means of self-empowerment without leaving behind the messiness that such a life approach can deliver. It felt like an act of liberation attended by a knowingness that pride should not be taken in what you achieve but in what you survive.
Susanna (born Susanna Karolina Wallumrød) addresses a related set of themes on her latest album, Meditations on Love. Unsurprisingly, the tone and approach of the experimental Norwegian singer-songwriter are entirely different. Susanna garnered international attention for her second album, Melody Mountain (2006), which consisted of cover songs by well-known artists like Leonard Cohen, AC/DC, and Prince. The standout was her version of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, which came close to surpassing the original, as heretical as that might sound, by slowing down the pace and carefully articulating every word.
Susanna’s third record, Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos (2007), gained similar attention for the slow and sublime beauty that unfolded across its tracks. With spare instrumental backing and a vocal delivery that approximated the ideals of Erik Satie with every musical note imbued with meaning, Susanna created ambient music without the usual trappings of loops, synths, and other electronica. Bonnie “Prince” Billy (Will Oldham) was so enamored with the album that he covered it in its entirety with Wolf of the Cosmos (2017).
Written over five years, Meditations on Love continues the same trajectory, albeit with expected revision. This LP has more edginess and angularity that reflect the thorny subject matter at hand. Susanna’s vocals remain at the center, though, both grounding these songs in real-world emotions while also elevating them above the everyday. Indeed, there are few happy tracks on Meditations on Love. Among the topics examined are gossip, disillusionment, abandonment, nightmares, uncertainty, fighting, and absence. The songs at hand often come across as warnings.
The result is a largely pessimistic record that’s bittersweet and, track by track, often plain bitter. Over its 40 minutes, Meditations on Love accumulates a grueling thematic quality leavened only by Susanna’s vocals. With its structure and lyrics, the opener, “Everyone Knows”, appears as an homage to Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” from I’m Your Man (1988). It is one of the best songs on the album. “Elephant Song” and “Where Has the Love Gone” are also stirring with endings that uplift the soul.
Other tracks are more difficult to swallow. They might be called anti-love songs. “I Took Care of Myself” is among the more unsettling numbers with its dark tone and emotionally chaotic melody. “Battles” also lives up to its name with a slightly militaristic mood that frames its working premise of personal conflicts. Meditations on Love ends on a bleak note with “I Was Never Here”, an existential song of second-guessing that asks what’s left when a relationship doesn’t work out.
Though ideas of disrepair and desolation animate Meditations on Love, Susanna’s voice keeps you listening across its ten tracks. She has moments that remind one of a stripped-down Björk with her ethereal delivery that can touch lightly, coax, and convince, depending on the demands of the song. In this and other ways, Meditations on Love is the polar opposite of BRAT. Susanna’s LP more closely resembles those released earlier this year by Beth Gibbons, Laetitia Sadier, and even Kim Gordon with their mid-life and later-life takes on love and human connection.
That said, the world leaves scars. Both Susanna and Charli XCX tacitly agree on this. While Charli XCX has promoted a view that seeks to expand the world from this principle, Susanna aims to distill the world, to bring it down to a set of uncomfortable truths, on this album. Love will tear us apart again and again.