All My Demons Greeting Me As a Friend (Aurora)

EN “All My Demons Greeting Me As a Friend” is the first studio album by Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora Aksnes. It was released on March 11, 2016, by Decca Records. The album is navigating between multiple genres such as electronic, pop and even folk, addressing themes related to fantasy, life, and death and all the themes related to a kind of magical and alternative environment, accompanied by a minimalist production, with perfect beats and synthesizers that make us feel embraced, like a fireplace in winter, you know?

The album has 7 singles, the first two being, “Runaway” and“Running with the Wolves” which were already released with the artist's first EP, “Running with the Wolves", released on May 4, 2015. “Runaway”, the first track of the album, has a certain magic associated with it, as if it were a kind of fusion between Florence Welch and Lykke Li, showing Aurora's solid vocals before moving on to a bright but dark chorus, full of soft and welcoming synths. It's an attractive and addictive start, in a very soft synth pop style, addressing the story of a girl who begs to go home - the only place she belongs, or just the only place left to go. On the other hand, “Running with the Wolves”, in a folk and ethereal style displays the beautiful and fragile voice of Aksnes, incorporating even some bubbly electronic elements, the music evolves into an exciting chorus, with a powerful drum, displaying the vocal range of the artist, ensuring that she will never be drowned out by the music or by the growing wave of concern and doubt of her magical world. "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" is the third single and the first track to be released from the project, which leads us to recall the style of Danish Agnes Obel, in a soft synthesizer, but still shows moments at the level of Sia, with some more stormy moments, which then explodes back in a light and energetic pop style. “Half the World Away”, was the fourth single from the album and was also included on the soundtrack to the 2015 John Lewis & Partners Christmas advertisement. In a minimalist version, the singer is accompanied only by a piano and can prove that she is able to transform a song, which has a rock style, into a kind of ballad that almost goes through a Christmas song. “Conqueror”, the fifth single, is a cheerful and optimistic song, with a captivating percussion and a vibrant chorus, something that the radio would receive without any problem, being one of those tracks that is able to infect us, carrying its energy throughout the day. “I Went Too Far", the sixth single, brings a message of resilience, and it is unimaginable to think that the track was written when she was only 9 years old. The song begins with nothing more than a piano and vocals, but slowly turns into a synth-backed pop ballad in the chorus, creating a special and phenomenal track, capable of cutting the heart, reflecting how far some will go, right or wrong, in the name of love. Finally, the seventh and final single, “Winter Bird”, was released on December 20, 2016, and I could not have chosen a better single to end the era, considering that it is my favorite song from the album. It turns out to be a hymn to life but through the vision of a dream, which ends up being deconstructed through the music video, where the singer is being involved inside a cocoon, in a kind of metaphor for the evolution of life, where we can always change and be a new person.

If we deconstruct the album cover, we see Aurora in a sort of Cocoon, almost ready to fly, which in a way represents this first album, which gave “wings” to her career. The album tells us about how lost and distressed that we can feel throughout our journey, and the imagination can always be a kind of an escape to a parallel reality. So, in addition to talking about emotional and existential problems that we all face in our lives, “All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend" speaks of a world that exists only in dreams or in the pages of a fantasy novel.

"All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend" is just amazing, and it doesn't fit in my head that it was released by someone only 19 years old, even considering that the tracks were written at ages well below that. The vocals and style of the album are perfect for the genre of music, and each song was produced and written to perfection, conveying its message immediately and there being cohesion between all the songs. The album does not look at all like a debut album, it would be perfectly something released by some already established artist like Lykke Li, Sia or even Florence + The Machine, and with this Aurora only shows her attention to detail and how much she dedicates herself to elaborate a quality project. And with the project, Aurora only showed that it has its own place in the musical panorama and that it has come to stay, launching until today impeccable projects and without any type of failure.

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