Anna Ternheim EP
Label: Decca
Length: EP
Rated: NONE
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Anna Ternheim EP
Every photo of Anna Ternheim finds her bowing her head like a kid scolded for thieving liquor (see this EP, Girl Lying Down, Separation Road, Somebody Outside), and she barely explains it. On the self-titled first U.S. release from this Swedish folk songwriter, “Bridges” begins like Elliott Smith’s “Oh Well, Okay” does: tender vocals and a slow-burning piano melody. It’s nice, but perhaps Ternheim’s EP is more reminiscent of Smith’s song title than it is of the actual song. The works here, all previously released, pack tipsy Wurlitzers (“My Secret”) or warbling tape noises (“I’ll Follow You Tonight”), with gloom hanging heavy where the lyrics don’t. “Lovers Dream (Naked Version)” is bloated with minor-key strings and open-ended, melodramatic couplets (“Maybe I could be yours, maybe you could be mine”), and the arduous task of getting to the closing gem, “My Secret,” elicits little more than, “Oh well, OK.”
This article appears in Nov 7-13, 2007.