Album Review Pt 2 - Marie Serneholt's Enjoy The Ride

I don’t know what has happened in Marie Serneholt’s life since A*Teens disbanded, but after listening to her début album, I deduce it must have been pretty awful, since she seems to be longing to retrocede in time to the teen craze of the year 2000, and live her adolescence once again. Maybe it is that sharing the spotlight with the group’s other three members was incredibly frustrating for the inner prototypical teen, pop-singing nymphet that she so desperately tries to unleash in this record, but the truth is that this music is incredibly dated for 2007, and not above most of the drivel that saturated the airwaves back then and propitiated the emergence of the Avril Lavignes and hip hop-filtered Beyoncés of the world. In short, this product is long past its caducity date.



The album opens with the amusing title track, which draws the listeners in with somewhat aggressive electric guitar chords that create a sense of expectation for an thunderous chorus or explosive finale that never materialize. Conversely, what we get is a cutesy chorus that tells us to enjoy the ride over a fast garage beat. The adorable melody’s subtle shifts, however, make this song enormously enjoyable, with Serneholt showing off her very pretty voice to its best effect across endless layers of vocal overdubs (which makes me wonder, how would Britney Spears’ material have sounded if someone with a little talent had sung it?). The importance of this song is considerable, given the fact that, in its little more than three minutes of length, the strengths and weaknesses of the album are revealed. Marred by an often bizarre production that aims to be innovative, but ends up being a chaotic mish mash of neurotically assembled little pieces, stupid lyrics that pretend to be adult by referring to (oh, the originality!) infidelities and sex - plus maybe far too little ambition, the album pretends to be enjoyable, but it is such a half effort that it ends up being just a guilty pleasure.



The record strives to surprise with the Cardigans-esque Wasted Love, a gorgeous song that presents us with the tragedy of teenage heartbreak over an urgent bass line and a rock-ified background that becomes effective by the cold, metallic sheen that the producers give to Marie’s vocals. Sadly, the album lacks any other experiments of this sort, and the majority of its ten tracks are little more than joyless revisions of a now obsolete formula. Take the faltering The Boy I Used To Know and the absolutely dismal I Can’t Be Loved, for example; both songs waste perfect choruses that burst out with energy (Max Martin would be proud) by forcibly cramming them into square melodies and pushing them down with frantic productions that run across a myriad of samples and vocal effects only to come out overwrought, and completely flat.

That’s The Way That My Heart Goes

Beyond Tonight



These missteps are avoided, however, in a number of tracks – most of which have, not curiously at all, been selected as singles. Lead single That’s The Way That My Heart Goes is simply delicious with its whispered, half-spoken verses and waving choruses, which bop in and out of the song with a rush of enthusiastic cheer. This trend is continued with the joyous I Need A House, which carefully straddles the line between pop/rock and dance music while naively addressing teenage homelessness. Driven forward by an infectious chorus and adorable harmonies, the song seems to be at least thirty seconds too short, and one is left with a feeling of not having gotten enough. The same could be said about the relationship anthem I Love Making Love In the Morning, which cheerfully celebrates the joys of sex from the perspective of a fifteen year old imagining how her life will be in ten years time (those who enjoyed the horrid film Thirteen Going On Thirty, will be thrilled by this). It is, nonetheless, a great slice of chocolate, jam and custard-coated cake.

I Love Making Love In The Morning

Calling All Detectives

This trend is redressed, however, when Serneholt ventures into ballad territory. In the delicate love anthem Beyond Tonight, easily the best song in the album, she is given enough time to flex her tiny, still juvenile voice into some sort of emotional expression, bringing much needed depth to the record with a feeling of uncertainty and desire to make love last that’s simply charming in its innocence. Its apparent continuation, the aptly titled Oxygen, slowly lifts the listener up to heaven between soft harmonies and longing sighs. A final highlight of the album, is the fast ballad Calling All Detectives, which combines some of the most ridiculous lyrics imaginable with a gorgeous melody and a haunting electric piano that keeps chirping over the rhythmic percussion and lovely acoustic touches.

Well, here we come to the final review of the month! I really hope it’s wasn’t too boring – I know my writing can be very dull and cryptic on occasions. I’d also like to remind you to buy this album. Go here.