About Love and Loving Again

Album review

Recorded mostly live with drummer Per Nordmark and keyboardist Pelle Andersson, both of whom also appeared on Christian Kjellvander's previous two albums, About Love and Loving Again takes an even darker, more involving turn than predecessor Wild Hxmans. The set was captured in a basement studio in Sweden in May 2020 while the rest of the Europe was under pandemic lockdown, an existential presence on the album. His ninth solo outing in total, it consists of just seven tracks, though more than half of them have lengthy runtimes of over seven minutes. More importantly, as they pass through moments of deep rumination, clarity, and cacophonic dissonance, the songs mostly run together at a similarly ambling, distracted pace. With a few exceptions, including the subtle twang of "Actually Country Gentle," it also takes a step further away from the country influence of his earlier works, settling into an atmospheric if earthy indie rock. About Love and Loving Again opens with pulsing distortion and chaotic drumming on "Baptist Lodge (The Galaxy)," a reference to the remote, converted chapel where Kjellvander wrote and recorded much of his prior solo work until a divorce that informs parts of the album. The track eventually hits a middling stride sketched out by brushed snare, with measure-marking bass drum, sustained guitar strums, and humming synths backing Kjellvander's deep-voiced, subtly melodic recollections, including "It was what it was/And is what it is/And you know, you know it ain't ever coming back." Like most of the entries here, it eventually grows in volume and expansiveness, including a guitar solo that says a lot with limited notes, before falling away to expose eerie synth shimmers (and building back up again). It's a meandering, volatile song and set that offers the most variation on "Cultural Spain," with its choir-like backing vocals (by Frida Hyvönen) and the sparser "Actually Country Gentle," which dwells in a steady, melancholy end-of-relationship acceptance ("The happiness is the first thing we forget"). Semi-improvisational and sprawling in nature, About Love and Loving Again is neither for the casual listener nor playlisters, but its unusually immersive qualities hold much potential for the patient.

© Marcy Donelson /TiVo