Norway has always had an outsized influence on the music world relative to its small population, from Romantic-era composer Edvard Grieg through 1980s pop sensation A-ha to today’s hugely popular Aurora, Girl in Red, and Alan Walker. Norwegians also have eclectic taste, as evidenced by the thriving folk music culture represented by acts like Sudan Dudan and Margit Myhr & Erlend Apneseth.
Country music is also wildly popular, as shown by the growing Nordicana scene, including the Impossible Green and the Northern Bell, with the greybeard Hellbillies currently touring. That brings us to Embla and the Karidotters. Their third full-length release proudly hits all the high lonesome notes and tips the cowboy hat to every country-and-western cliché. Led by songwriter and lead singer Embla Karidotter, formerly the drummer for the indie rock band Razika, The Fool is high-energy fun from a kick-ass, live-show-honed band, anchored by the strong songs and versatile voice of the band’s namesake.
Sounding like R.E.M., circa “Driver 8”, the lead-off track “Wanna Ride?” starts with chorus-affected guitar chords that suddenly give way to a two-step fiddle announcing the pop/county crossover sound that touches Taylor Swift territory, to get that allusion out of the way, and sets the bar high for the rest of the record. The boogie-woogie verse contrasts with a stylized, multi-voice chorus and an anthemic hook. The song also has Karidotter’s caustic lyrics: “You can save a horse and ride a cowgirl.” It gets even better with an outstanding solo by guitarist Benjamin Rø Haavelsrud, who spices it up with modal embellishments. Showing off their stagecraft, the track offers two false endings before wryly fading out.
“This Norwegian country girl is going California sober,” Karidotter proclaims in the possibly autobiographical “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee”, which features the tasty pedal steel of producer Simen Følstad Nilsen. Ready for a rowdy bar set, the song is about going on the wagon while on the road with a country band. Yet, “Who’d know quittin’ drinkin’ could be so much fun,” the speaker dryly observes.
The most ambitious song of the set, “Your Own Moon”, begins as a simple country ballad with a quiet acoustic guitar but blooms unexpectedly into a rather overblown chorus of voices while showcasing Karidotter’s strong voice. Another love song, the radio-ready “Imogen” is anchored by a guitar riff and swirls with pedal steel. Tuneful, it is undercut by some rather cliché lyrics.
That said, clichés are next-door neighbours to genre expectations, and it’s not clear how much of their act is tongue-in-cheek. The trite lyric “cuts me like a knife” could easily reference that Bryan Adams song. Calling themselves a “queer country band”, Karidotter’s lyrics subvert the outlaw-cowboy, patriarchal ethos of the genre, often with in-your-face humour.
“Cuntry” is a case in point. It tells the story of a barroom hookup, references Garth Brooks, and includes another high-gloss, hooky, vocal chorus. In “Rhinestoned Cowgirl”—a play on the Glen Campbell hit—she sings, “I don’t do alcohol, but I sure know how to liquor.” In “Another Honkytonk Song”, Karidotter interrupts things to call a line-dancing session: “Heel, toe, heel, toe”, indeed.
The entire record sounds electrically live, driven by a crack band that includes Marie Moe on bass and Nils Jørgen Nilsen on drums. Especially noteworthy is the skill and interplay between Haavelsrud and Nilsen on guitar and pedal steel, respectively, who shine throughout. Together, the Karidotters walk the walk and have big hats and lots of cattle, if you’ll pardon one more cliché. They must sound great live.
The album cover shows the Tarot card “The Fool”, which represents fresh starts, spontaneity, and leaps of faith. Here, the traditionally male representation of The Fool appears as a woman, emphasizing a gender-reversed retelling of the country band story presented on The Fool by a highly entertaining narrator. Embarking on an ambitious tour, the newly married Embla and her Karidotters, after two previous albums, seem poised to take their project to new heights.