Phases & Stages

Frida Hyvönen

Where Tori and Fiona made the piano a vehicle for broken silence, Swede Frida Hyvönen slyly updates the story with animal magnetism on her second LP. Over 13 songs, she spans the spectrum of female emotion, her voice clear and matter-of-fact, even when she doubts herself, as on the plaintive "Why Do You Love Me So Much" ("Have I by mistake been extra charming? Oh, the chances are alarmingly low"). She grits her teeth and grips the minor keys on slow-burning stalker standout "Highway 2 U" ("Look into my eye, dear. Eye of the tiger. Do you understand?") and argues with herself to comedic effect on "Enemy Within." She's abandoned the gray clouds of 2006 debut Until Death Comes, replacing them with more colorful arrangements and assured choruses while keeping the schmaltz to a minimum. Frida's a modern woman with her own sound and fury, and Silence breaks it open.