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ARTIST
TITLE
Un-American Activities (Color Vinyl)
FORMAT
LP
LABEL
CATALOG #
LSSN 097X-LP
LSSN 097X-LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
9/20/2024
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LP version. Color vinyl. "Un-American Activities is the 11th Studio album by Molly Nilsson. Written and recorded entirely on location in California at the former home of writer, poet and early opponent of the National Socialist regime in 1930s Germany, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. An album of experimentation, genre-mashing and, above it all, Nilsson's instantly recognizable melodic skill and empathy, it continues the songwriter's explorations of power, freedom, oppression and its opposing force, a love unbound. After accepting an artist residency as part of the Villa Aurora program, Nilsson began work crafting a new album from scratch in a new environment, afforded the freedom, space and time to challenge her practice and take her music into new territory. The resulting work, Un-American Activities, is a love note not only to the artist who was among the very first to be declared an 'enemy of the state' by the Nazi regime but also to both the eternal struggle he fought and the human spirit that pervades all of Nilsson's best work. It is also a double-pointed poison pen letter: a critique of the new forms of oppression wielded by her temporary adopted country of the USA but also an acknowledgement of the promise it always offers but never fulfills. Along with the novel use of color and photography in the artwork for Un-American Activities, there are swathes of new techniques, genres and timbres new to Molly Nilsson's music in evidence, 16 years into her music career. While Un-American Activities finds Nilsson experimenting, creating instinctive music on a first-thought-best-thought basis there are still 'classic' Molly moments liberally spread throughout. 'Excalibur' feels like the Molly of old, an absolute star of a chorus refrain smudged with the vaseline of fuzz and hope, 'Red Telephone' is wide-eyed, slathered in reverb and chorus effects, distorted with soaring melody, a heart-tugger that tugs the body upwards to the heavens with each evolving wave. Glistening digital tones wash through the album, providing a Y2K etherealness to Nilsson's audacious Stars and Stripes reference to 'Wetcheeks.' Perhaps the album's standout, however, is 'Palestine (Somewhere Over The Rainbow),' which is suffuse with empathy, solidarity and, in referencing the classic socialist-penned canon song from The Wizard Of Oz, speaks directly to the tradition of fighting oppression with full hearts of hope."
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