Upon turning 40 and reaching his eighth album , the Norwegian Grammy-winning singer-songwriter-producer Thomas Helland effectively sings his life, with 16 songs that reflects the artists who have most inspired him. Mostly, this seems to have been the late Beatles’ lush orchestrations, Jimmy Webb’s classic songwriting and the yearning vocals of ill-fated Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. There are also audible nods to John Grant, Supergrass and, with the sublime 1985, thin-tied powerpop.
However, it’s far more than mere homage. These heartfelt songs revel in the warm, eerie glow of nostalgia and a sense of innocence lost and retained. There are terrific songs about summer rain, loneliness, gathering to play Nintendo and, in the era before what he calls “regulators”, the simple joy of “building a tree house as children should”. It’s a tremendously personal work that is all the more powerful for the feeling that the world it so wonderfully documents is already being lost.
