Album Review: AURORA - All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend
By Jonathan Fuchs, Copy Editor
[Glassnote; 2016]
Rating: 7/10
Key Tracks: “Runaway,” “Winter Bird,” “Under the Water”
The music video for “Runaway,” the breakout single from Norwegian pop singer AURORA, shows the 19-year-old, alone in the snow-covered woods, emotionally waving her hands to her beautifully crafted melodies. This is really the only way to describe her debut record All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, as each song explores the heavy, mysterious atmosphere of dance-inspired indie pop provided by artists like Lorde and Sia. While none of these songs are flawless, with some that awkwardly break away from this sound, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend is still an interesting release that has the sadness some artists only wish they could craft correctly.
The album starts off with songs like “Runaway” and “Running With the Wolves” that take generic indie-pop instrumentals and blend them with AURORA’s innocent sounding vocals, making them a lot more pleasant and interesting. The first half of the record contains this kind of sound that mixes together plain instrumentals, lackluster-at-times lyrics and delicate singing to create a pretty pleasant listening experience, despite its lack of uniqueness.
The second half expresses a lot more originality with its instrumentals on tracks like “Warrior,” “Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)” and “Under the Water” that are enriched with imaginative textures and synths while retaining AURORA’s nice vocals. While the lyrics are still not very dense, there is plenty of care put into each individual song, as each one leaves a mark on the listener and will have them coming back for more.
While definitely not mind-blowing, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend is still a good album that should be loved by fans of dark, emotional indie-pop. It is clear that in a genre dominated by artists like Sia, Daughter and Halsey, AURORA deserves be on top - and, from the looks of it, there to stay for a while.
