Josefina Sanner - Love Case Scenario, the latest release by the Swedish pop singer and songwriter, is a compilation of short stories told through her creative arrangements, communicative lyrics, and captivating voice.
Love Case Scenario: Row Your Boat; About to Leave; Beautiful Day; Hallelujah; Feel It; Eternally Yours; All Words From You; Heartstop; La La Love Must Be; Stealing The Sky; Fragments
Personnel: Josephina Sanner: Vocals, Backing Vocals, Cello, Organ, Soprano Tubular Bells, Celeste, Svampinjonium, Acoustic Guitar; Andreas Dahbäck: Drums, Church Organ, Synthesizer, Tambourine, Bells, Programming, Shaker, Piano, Cabazza, Woodblock, Backing Vocals, Wurlitzer, Congas; Patrik Hjerling: Bass, Double Bass; Calle Ekerstam: Electric Guitar, Electric Baritone Guitar; Marcus Ohlsson: Bass Clarinet, Transverse Flute, Pizzicato Piano, Tenor and Alto Saxophone, Acoustic Piano; Andreas Ekstedt: Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Croatales, Marimba; Julia Falthih: Bass; Simon Yuergren: Box on Floor; Jonas Öijvall: Piano, Accordion, Electric Piano; Paul Börjesson: Bass
Josefina Sanner - Love Case Scenario was produced by Andreas Dahbäck and released on the Finaville Music label. Josefina Sanner is a prolific songwriter who has penned more than 700 songs, and on Love Case Scenario, she recorded her best music to date. I fist met Josefina Sanner in the summer of 2004 while traveling through Stockholm, she was performing at an outdoor concert, and I was fascinated by her voice. I have watched her career blossom (Read a review of her previous self-title release Josefina Sanner in the Music Scene section), and Love Case Scenario perfectly illustrates why I was fascinated by her voice. Her maturity as an artist [singer, songwriter, and performer] has been such a pleasure to watch; it also creates anticipation for future material, but for now, we have Love Case Scenario to enjoy.
The songs on Love Case Scenario were stirred by an emotionally painful breakup; so, she looked to happier times and drew influences from her childhood and from her other artistic outlet as a painter. As Josefina puts it, "to transform my experiences into songs - I've turned my worst case scenario to a love case scenario." Each track is a short story covering a different chapter in Josefina's life, and with her unique ability to bond her voice with her expressive lyrics, you are in for a real treat.
The release leads with the track Row Your Boat and she starts her mending from her breakup through her lyrics and enticing vocals as she sings "Now this life has fallen like November leaves; Cold, I'm left out stalling, naked as a tree," and blends this with a happy memory from her childhood days with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat, gently down the stream, life is but a dream; Bye, bye baby, goodbye and maybe we'll meet on the other side." She shows that her extraordinary talent as a songwriter is accented by her captivating voice. The second track About To Leave uses the distinct sounds of the celeste to create a heavenly state that is complemented by a church organ and tubular bells. This dreamlike state is an expressive pairing with Josefina's vocals and her charged lyrics "I remember how once you were eager to love, now I bend and I break what an awful mistake."
The track Beautiful Day longs for the second chance that what has been happening can be changed, and things will go back as before, but in the end life moves on. She captures all of the feelings, hopes, the twists and turns that we go through before we realize that we must move on; her voice will ring in your ear like your conscious telling you that the time has come "it's not too late, so don't lose faith." Changing pace is the track Hallelujah where Josefina's mesmerizing voice is at its best as she rolls in a spiritual sound asking the question "Please tell me why?"
Josefina, like many Swedes, is tied to nature and this comes through in her lyrics that reflect time and life changing experiences through the seasons. On the track Eternally Yours she sings of "We had summer for a year, a winter's day took it; We had love that couldn't fail, but spring came and blew it away."
Other extraordinary tracks include Feel It, a whimsical track where she uses specific instruments like the pizzicato piano in a creative arrangement to cast the tone and meaning of the song; All Words From You strips away many of the instruments and leans on the raw sound of Josefina's vocals and her acoustic guitar accompanied by bass clarinet and the sound of the vibraphone; Heartstop, a track that uses the slight pounding on the drums as the sound of a person's heartbeat and the timely transitions of the haunting tenor saxophone to create a magical sound set against lyrics about reclaiming your inner self; La La Love Must Be is a light hearted track that tosses around all of the bits and pieces of a relationship like lost connections that never really come together.
The release closes out with the tracks Stealing the Sky and Fragments that draws closure to this emotionally charged release where the stories are intertwined with the ebb and flow of Josefina's inspiring vocals and inventive arrangements.
Websites where you can procure Josefina Sanner - Love Case Scenario are Josefina Sanner, CD Baby, iTunes, and CDON.Com.
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