Female Legs

Violins, the third album from Blondshell, finds Sabrina Teitelbaum digging in. Following her acclaimed 2023 self-titled debut and 2025's If You Asked For A Picture, the 11-track Violins trades the veil of bad romantic relationships for something braver, asking how we balance the world's violence with its beauty across songs about troubled friendships, religion, the body, and the long, unglamorous work of healing. It's an album of grandeur, drama, and tragedy, built on virtuoso hooks, swelling guitars, and big lead lines, pulling in fresh touchstones from Gang of Four, Teenage Fanclub, The Go-Betweens, and Sade, alongside lyrical nods to Leonard Cohen and Pavement. From the anthemic frenemy portrait of "Heart Has To Work So Hard" to the sunny, insomniac daydream of "Lucky" and the disarming closer "Fur Elise," Violins captures the sound of an artist who has stopped overexplaining and started rendering art on her own terms.

Cool Norway seems to be the most efficient hothouse for new talents in Europe in recent years. Vocalist Solveig Slettahjell is by no means a new talent, but only now is her third solo disc, with her Slow Motion Quintet, being distributed outside of Norway. Slettahjell was a student of renowned Norwegian vocalist Sidsel Endresen, with whom she collaborated recently in Jon Balke's Batagraf ensemble (Statements, ECM, 2005). She recorded with the experimental all-female vocal quartet Kvitretten, with jazz singers Eldbjørg Raknes, Kristin Asbjörnsen and Tone Åse, and teaches jazz singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music.