Jenny Hval questions artistic sovereignty on “Freedom”
It’s the third and final single from Classic Objects, due out this Frday, March 11, on 4AD.
Jenny Hval's gorgeous, strikingly plainspoken new album, Classic Objects, drops Friday via 4AD. In anticipation of the release, she's shared "Freedom," which follows "Jupiter" and "Year of Love" as the record's third and final single.
The new track is the project's simplest cut, though the interlocking guitars and keyboard that underlie her sing-song vocal are deceptively complex. It's blissed-out pop with a glimmer of irony, the product of a supremely self-aware singer-songwriter who nevertheless can't stop making pretty sounds. "I wanna live in a democracy / Somewhere where art is free / Not that it ever was," she sings, the optimism in her vocal tone unflinching.
Read Hval's statement on the song and watch its abstract visual treatment below.
I don’t know what freedom is. This song doesn't either. The lyrics are bombastic and silly, as if written by a political folk song generator. Nonetheless the song was needed on my record - I needed something short and sweet after a series of long, layered reflections.
I imagine it being sung in a courtroom or in parliament when the debate gets too heated and everyone needs a break. In this imagined moment, everyone is singing in unison.
This is the only way I can describe "Freedom" — as a kind of performative moment that breaks up the structure, language and ambivalence of the rest of the record. On its own, it seems weirdly clear and pure. I can’t really defend it. Or perhaps it is myself I can’t defend. The song is necessary. It just reminds me of the fact that I am not.