SMELLS FUNNY

Finally Hedvig Mollestad pulls it all together!

While the previous albums have been easy to enjoy, this is the album where everything finally works in Hedvig's favour and trancends the previous efforts.

The melodies are heavy but with a slightly jazzy feeling that enhances what could otherwise be determined a too bombastic approach.

Not one filler track on the album although not all tracks are of stellar quality.

Beastie, Beastie, First Thing To Pop Is The Eye, Sugar Rush Mountain and Lucidness are the stand out tracks.

Jurasek is the mellow alibi on the album and "drowns" a bit among the otherwise frenzy.

Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered is also very good but not as good as the best. This track alternates between a very riff based theme that is a bit to repetetive, but also wander almost into free jazz at times.

Lucidness, which clocks in at over 8 minutes, is a track that grows on you. It comes across as a bit less catchy as the rest, but the atmosphere in the track grabs You and won't let Your attention wander during the whole workout.

To sum it up, the best album of her career so far and we can only hope that she aims to hold this level of excellence or better this effort in her next releases!

A really strong album from these Norwegians but a short one at under 36 minutes. Hedvig really shows her stuff on here in a multitude of ways from the song writing to the various styles of music she covers. It's pretty cool when Hendrix, Sharrock, Santana, Page and Rypdal come to mind. This lady can play but then so can Ellen on bass, man she can groove but like Hedvig she can do it all. Ivar on drums sounds like a Rock drummer more than a Jazz drummer and this is a band who crosses into both of these styles although I would call this more of a Rock album. Ivar is a maniac.

Over the six tracks we get some variety but it's all good. Probably my least favourite would be "Jurasek" which is fairly mellow with some relaxed Santana-like guitar. I've grown to appreciate this one. I'm not big on the heavy riffing to open and close "Bewitched, Dwarfed And Defeathered" but man the majority of the rest of this song makes up for it. We get jazzy stuff and some dissonant guitar which is cool then she lights it up. "First Thing To Pop Is The Eye" has a Page-like section to start which actually reminds me more of Lifeson on RUSH's debut. The rest is gravy with those intricate leads then atmospheric sounds all the while the bass and drums drive this along relentlessly. The guitar is crying then at 4 1/2 minutes we get some echo, love this. Check out the bass and guitar a minute later. She's lighting it up before 6 minutes.

The opener "Beastie, Beastie" is another highlight and a song I've played a lot. Powerful yet restrained. We get some hit and runs solos as well as a steady run of playing. Just love the sound of it. "Sugar Rush Mountain" is a ride at a high speed down that mountain. I like that drum intro and then they are off! The drums really stand out on this one. The closer "Lucidness" is my favourite. Experimental to begin as the guitar starts to cry out. Soon the guitar is reminding me of Rypdal as the bass and drums continue to remain experimental. Intense is the word. The guitar is crying out again after 4 minutes. So good. Check out that repetitive guitar melody beginning around 5 1/2 minutes and it continues for about a minute. How powerful is this after 7 1/2 minutes. Come on!

Easily 4 stars and one of those albums where there is a high appreciation for the way each member plays on this all instrumental album.