The Honest and Beautiful Sounds of Malin Hässlemark
A new EP release from Malin Hässlemark breeds a beautiful honesty and a very particular way of blending genres, all with a southern-touched undertone but taking elements of Americana, folk, contemporary pop, and more to create an atmosphere that you end up falling right into as soon as it starts.
The Wildfire EP is brimming with character and honesty which is something that lets all the songs feel like they came from someplace genuine and the entire record ends up having this certain level of authenticity along with some lyrical detail that lets you almost paint vivid pictures in your head at times.
One of my favorite aspects about this release is that it's four songs long but during its course, you're pulled away from your surroundings, and so the record ends up being a sort of escape and you find yourself paying attention to the lyrics and what's going on in these songs and Malin does an amazing job of wearing her heart on her sleeves in her own particular way.
The instrumentation across this record is outstanding and you have all kinds of cinematic backbone thriving throughout the release and this is something that lets the song sort of swell and sway giving them the feeling of being almost alive and breathing.
There is a beautifully rustic tonality to the whole thing and you find yourself letting it wrap itself around you to the point where it feels almost warm and welcoming.
Some instruments create notes floating through the ether of certain tracks and this gives them a vastness in their undertone but it's the things that she's singing about and the performance that she delivers that gets you engulfed in this EP.
Her performance is passionate and has sold to it so you can tell she's just letting things out, and in a way, it feels like the release was most likely cathartic for her but for the listener, it's very relatable, and these stories and the way she tells them make perfect sense.
I love a release that you can feel something from and that bears a soulful honesty the way that this one does because these are the things that pull you in and throughout the record, you get to see a few different sides to Malin both as an artist and as a person as well.
This to me is quite a beautiful thing because you don't get it often so when you hear it you recognize it and it is absolutely refreshing.
A lot of these tracks have a beautiful way of growing both musically and just in terms of being more intense as they play on which I find wonderful in terms of composition and arrangement and you can tell that there was a lot of thought process that went into this and a lot of attention to detail during the creation of this record however, it never ever loses the heart that it begins within the first place and that may be the most important part of it all.
This release speaks volumes for the artist and I'm looking forward to whatever else she has coming down the pipe because we all need more music that makes you think and makes you feel and this is exactly what Malin Hässlemark delivers and she does so with a wondrous character as she portrays her inner thoughts to the open world.
Take a listen to this beautiful record when you get a chance and see how it affects you.