Ane Brun - It All Starts With One Deluxe Version Album Review

rating: 4.5

Website: www.anebrun.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/anebrunofficial Release date: April 23rd, 2012 When a deluxe version of an album is released, you know it€™s got to be something special. Something that the artist feels the need to re-issue, and not simply because of the probability of earning more money, but also because they€™ve added extra tracks to an album that already provided them with success, aids and pushes the potential listeners and buyers into the security of a worthwhile record €“ the extra tracks provide a depth of unknown intrigue, and the tracks that were featured on the record before are still there. Acting like some sort of pillar that holds up the album while the unknown tracks scurry around them like eager workers, chipping and chiselling at the pillar until it crumbles away, leaving the unknown tracks to take their place. This is exactly what Ane Brun€™s deluxe version of her award-winning 2011 album, It All Starts With One is like. The €˜other€™ tracks that are featured on a second disc are what really makes this album so important; they€™re what further completes an album that was already more of an album than what many artists can only dream of creating. They€™re not so much a missing piece of the puzzle of this album, they€™re more like the patterns on the box that the puzzle is kept in. Adding extra colour and shape and even protection to the established tracks, they show that however good an album is, it€™s never completely finished in the mind of the musician who created it. However, with the addition of these tracks, it€™s safe to say that this album is now completely finished and even Brun can€™t push this album any further. To do so would be a waste of time. If you haven€™t heard of Ane Brun before, here€™s a quick synopsis. She€™s the winner of two Spellemanpris (the equivalent of the Norwegian Grammies) and has released 8 albums €“ two of which went platinum, one went gold. She€™s toured consistently and has recently been shortlisted for the 2012 Nordic Music Prize. With each album more praise and expectancy has been heaped on her, finally culminating in her last album, It All Starts With One reaping the awards of all her hard work over the years and providing an opening to a new, bigger, worldwide audience. She€™s one of the most exciting artists to appear in recent years and the success she€™s developed is testament to her work ethic that she throws into every musical project she does. Rather than reviewing the tracks that have already made the album a triumph, I€™m going to pick out the finest moments on the second disc in this deluxe album. Take It Slow is a mesmerising, swirling track that clutches you and hugs you close. Managing to utilise the most of Brun€™s inimitable style, the lyrics of take it slow, take it slow, you and me, let€™s take it slow really live up to their meaning which, with the charming strings section, makes for an unattainable sense of passion and intimate knowledge that Brun must have strived to achieve with this track. http://youtu.be/6D34OKBcrtU I Would Hurt A Fly has a sparkling piano which delves into the most bleakest recesses of your mind, drawing out feelings of darkness and loss, yet still leaves you hanging onto a feeling of joy because of the depth of the music and the quality of Brun€™s delivery and lyrical know-how. The track is something akin to standing on the edge of a cliff waiting for the end of the world. You know it€™s got to come sometime but you don€™t know when. When the track does finally end, it leaves you with a stark, silent feeling of recollection and of times gone by that€™ll never come again. This is a track that really taps into your psyche and lingers long after it€™s over. Alfonsina Y El Mar shows Brun singing in what is, imaginably, Spanish. The track is just her and a piano and a strings section and the aspect of the foreign language really creates a romantic, elevating listen. The imagery that springs from the song is of Brun tearing her heart out on a piano in some dark, ancient Spanish bar with old, weathered faces watching her from the darkness. It€™s a really atmospheric track and it truly adds that extra bit of noir imagery that the other tracks have been nagging at. http://youtu.be/_LkBHPkZwbo How to rate an already award-winning album? You can€™t. What you can do, though, is think about how the extra tracks add to the established ones. In this case, they stand well next to them and provide a more circular, absolute feel, marking this album out as one that will still sound as tall and as captivating as it does now, in years to come. A deluxe version of an album has never felt as indispensable as this.