Frida Hyvönen, Until Death Comes

Frida Hyvönen’s debut album Until Death Comes came out in her native country of Sweden in 2005 to worldwide acclaim, winning the Stockholm Prize and breaking into the Swedish singles charts for a few weeks with her breakout single “I Drive My Friend.” The sterling acclaim is well-deserved, as Frida’s glorious voice, raised in the candor of a singer-songwriter, splits the difference between Joni Mitchell’s sublimation of the musical note and the drone of Nico’s honest tone. Her lyrics often waver from the fatuous to the serious, from the romantic to the stoic, without a moment’s hesitation, making her a fundamentally interesting personality, while her piano accompaniment compliments her will to measure tragedy and comedy with a strong degree of cheerful elegance. Songs of loss like “Once I Was A Serene Teenage Child” open up the paroxysmal effect of emotions resultant from the actuated childish fantasies of sex and independence on a teenager with a paradoxical, nostalgic tenderness. At the same time, the song “Djuna” exposes the chaotic nature of the down-and-out singer, masked by childish reaction to the corruption around and within her. As her piano trots merrily along, her voice chiming with tranquil ease, Frida spins stories of fear, loss, and pain. The music of Frida Hyvönen is music of a subtler genius, as natural and flawless as a winter’s morning, within which every nascent insinuation of danger is contained.