Her Royal Harness
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Her Royal Harness is the musical moniker of Helene Jæger, an alternative rock / pop singer-songwriter from Bergen, Norway. Jæger's music has been characterized by its melancholy lyrical world centering on themes of isolation and being lost to yourself, uniting the "ghosts of rocks", Baroque Europe, dance music and gospel.
Career
[edit]Jæger's debut album The Hunting Room (mixed with Justin Gerrish -Vampire Weekend, The Strokes) was released on independent label Manufacture in 2013, to critical acclaim. The Sunday Times called lead single 'Unseen' "brilliant"[1] and UK music magazine The 405 called the album: "A dazzling and confident debut from a band who could find themselves among the leading lights of off-kilter pop".[2] The album was also named "Best New Release" by Classic Pop Magazine and lead single 'Unseen' was hailed as "one of the year's most enjoyable songs" by US entertainment tastemaker The A.V. Club[3] Several tracks were picked up by radio stations such as XFM in the UK and charted on CMJ,[4] garnering the project an underground following.
In Norway, Her Royal Harness received a dice throw of 4 in Bergensavisen. Several aspects of the music were mesmerizing and caught the reviewer's attention, with the highlights being "Mercenary Man", "Colour Me" "I Can't Believe" and "Unseen". Other songs were not up to par, and the reviewer felt "entitled to expect more from Her Royal Harness".[5]
Dagbladet gave a dice throw of 3 since the product felt premature. Contrary to the obvious ambitions to make "substantial pop music" with a breed of electopop, indie rock and synthpop, it was not executed well enough. The album had an undesirable lo-fi sound at times, and Jaeger used "deep, lesser dynamic voices" which did not blend in with the music. The songs "Mercenary Man", "I Can't Believe" and "Unseen" were the most promising.[6] Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen also wrote that the album lacked direction to a certain extent, and seemed "unfulfilled". The reviewer stated that he lost interest as the record progressed, he too giving a score of 3/6.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ The Sunday Times print, 11 August 2013
- ^ O'Malley, Cora. "Her Royal Harness - The Hunting Room". The 405. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ Ryan, Kyle (30 August 2013). "Petty bickering online led to one of the year's most enjoyable songs". The AV Club. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ First week of August 2013
- ^ Ødegård, Ann Kristin (12 July 2013). "Elektropop: Her Royal Harness". Bergensavisen (in Norwegian).
- ^ Falkenberg-Arell, Rannveig (21 June 2013). "Mer pop, takk!". Dagbladet (in Norwegian).
- ^ Henriksbø, Per Ivar (15 August 2013). "Trivielt og noe ufullendt". Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen (in Norwegian).
Further reading
[edit]- http://www.hungertv.com/feature/her-royal-harness-unseen/ Archived 24 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/celebrity/entertainment/monitor/2013/06/her-royal-harness-interview-bio-the-hunting-room Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- http://www.philthymag.com/her-royal-harness-music-for-moving-the-masses/
- http://www.classicpopmag.com/tag/her-royal-harness/ Archived 21 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- https://web.archive.org/web/20140810083018/http://schonmagazine.com/2013/06/8497/
