SONDRE LERCHE
Phantom Punch
EMI
· Norwegian pop phenom turns up the rock… a little bit.
Sondre Lerche never really got a chance to unleash his teenage aggression. The Norwegian singer-songwriter’s first album, 2002’s Faces Down, was recorded when he was still in high school, but featured a collection of serious and sensitive classic pop tunes that belied their author’s youth. Now in his mid-20s and with three albums under his belt, Lerche is ready to loosen up and rock out. Phantom Punch, which follows a fairly successful experiment with croonerism (last year’s The Duper Sessions), is Lerche’s attempt at cranking it up and while he does hit a new level of energy, the emotional impact of his music suffers.
For Lerche, "rock" is a relative term, and while Phantom Punch is more aggressive than anything in his back catalogue, it’s still dripping in the intellectualism that Lerche has made his trademark. The tempos are sped up and the lyrics are a little less heady, but Lerche’s impeccable compositions are still recognizably his. Still, while the songs are as strong as anything he’s written, there’s a sense of tentativeness – the music is more physical, but he doesn’t totally commit. Lerche probably isn’t capable of putting out a lousy record, and this one is far from bad, but he could use a little less phantom and a little more punch.
3/5
ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
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