Song You Need: Jenny Hval’s back in her vampire bag
“Buffy,” Hval’s first new single since the release of Classic Objects in March, is (sort of) about its eponymous TV heroine.
Back in 2016, Jenny Hval released Blood Bitch, a concept album about vampires and menstruation. Six years and five projects later (including two with Lost Girls), the Norwegian art-pop icon still can’t get the fanged menaces out of her head. As fate would have it, though, she seems to have changed her once-positive attitude toward the bloodsucking breed.
“Buffy,” Hval’s first single since the release of Classic Objects this past March, centers one of history’s most notable vampire dislikers. But like much of Hval’s catalog, it can’t be taken at face value. Spawned from a free-flowing synth jam, the new song gives an emotional and literary reading of Buffy’s less immediately obvious themes. “This is / Why I love her,” she begins. “Now I love / How she could / She couldn’t stop fighting / The facts / The facts of the world / More real than what / We believe is realism.”
From there, Hval moves into a more structural, hierarchical analysis of the show, postulating on its potential as praxis. “Somehow I improvised some lyrics that referred to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, probably just because I have watched it many times,” she explains in a press release. “I do like the idea that a TV series with many episodes, like Buffy, can be used as a creative and political rehearsal. An episodic form rehearsing overthrowing a dictatorship, a plutocracy, or theocracy?
“Buffy is not a song about a slayer, a superhero, or feminist icon,” she concludes. “If anything, it’s a song about hope, but in an understated and episodic way. Because to me, hope is more hopeful when it is presented in a subtle way.”
Hval, of course, is the queen of subtle, layered presentation. On “Buffy,” as on Classic Objects’ best tracks, she uses her angelic soprano and a sumptuous instrumental as vehicles for a message that’s nuanced, original, and infused with irony, allowing her to evade the trappings of self-seriousness.
“Buffy” arrives following the early November release of a gorgeous live video for two Classic Objects cuts — “Cemetery of Splendour” and the title track — directed by Jenny Berger Myhre and including a cameo from Hval’s beloved dog, Cleo.
Listen to the new song, watch the clip, and view Hval’s upcoming European tour dates below. And hear her in conversation with yours truly on the 39th episode of The FADER Interview.
Jenny Hval tour dates
November 16 - Istanbul, TR - Babylon
November 18 - Basel, CH - Buchbasel (Reading & Conversation)
November19 - Basel, CH - Kaserne
November 20 - Bern, CH - Saint Ghetto Festival
November 22 - Espinho, PT - Auditório de Espinho
November 23 - Lisbon, PT - Culturgest
November 24 - Braga, PT - Gnration