Thomas Dybdahl

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Norwegian singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Thomas Dybdahl is as close to a superstar as you can get in his home country, which translates to over 140,000 albums sold, multiple awards and accolades, and sold out tours. Granted, it’s a bit tougher to garner the same sort of attention in a North American landscape that’s already so overwrought and perhaps overtired of the sensitive songwriter shtick. Hopefully, American audiences will find room for one more, because Dybdahl certainly deserves a shot. His final album of the trilogy recorded in New York City, One Day You’ll Dance For Me, New York City, is the first to be released in North America, and falls far beyond the usual fare. The songs are simple and almost bare, sometimes painfully so. The lyrics are moving without being cliche, and overall Dybdahl’s voice proves an ideal vehicle for delivering them with a sensitivity and vulnerability that recalls the likes of Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake, whose voices were also their most predominant instruments. No bodies are a wonderland on this record, there are no nifty guitar lines to stick in your head or accompanying MTV-worthy videos. The lack of production and pretentiousness on this album should still get people moving in their seats, though it will likely be squirming from the impressive but almost claustrophobic intimacy felt through this recording.

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