Mint

Album review

Born in Frankfurt but raised in Canada and America, Alice Merton eventually touched down in Germany again at the age of 13, before flying to the United Kingdom for her studies. Nomadism and cosmopolitanism are central to this young singer's life and it seems only natural that she would use these themes in her first album, particularly in a single whose title speaks for itself: No Roots. Not only did she travel throughout her youth, but her family are also scattered all over the globe, preventing her from developing any significant family ties. Co-written with Nicolas Rebscher (like most of the other tracks on the album), No Roots evokes these perpetual family movements through a catchy melody. It’s arranged in a relatively refined way and the bouncing rhythms are brought to the fore. Other songs (such as Homesick) evoke the flipside of the coin; missing a loved one living thousands of miles away. Nevertheless, Alice Merton's melancholy is never listless because the young woman is not the type to feel sorry for herself, and the radiant music on this album proves that.

In the same vein, the other consequence of Alice Merton's nomadism is her open outlook on the world and on her contemporaries. Songs like Why So Serious or Speak Your Mind emphasize the need to express oneself and live freely. The music video of Why So Serious shows the young woman surrounded by people doing bizarre things all over the city - a metaphor for the need to accept all cultures, however different they may be from the one to which we belong. Alice Merton, a pure product of globalization, does not belong to any particular culture and ultimately it is the positive aspect of this free movement of people that she alludes to in Mint. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz