Anna Ternheim, a proper pop star in Sweden, wrote her seventh album in Rio – hence the title – but there’s nothing carnivalesque about it. Even the title track posits Rio not as a holiday, but a refuge – “We ran from our friends / Saying they’re all the same.” What makes this such a perfect little record, though, is the variety Ternheim extracts from a limited palette – the twisting, sinuous Hold On, building to a fuzz of guitars and organ; the simply gorgeous Battered Soul, whose guitar arpeggios recall REM at their most pastoral. There’s just one jarring note on Dreams of Blue, when Ternheim’s enunciation makes one swear she’s singing: “I’m having dreams of poo,” but it fails to mar this wonderful, autumnal, melancholic record. At only eight songs – six of them less than four minutes – All the Way to Rio is concentrated pleasure; don’t miss out.
