AURORA – All My Demons Meeting Me As A Friend : Album Review

AURORA – All My Demons Meeting Me As A Friend : Album Review

16th March 2016 Off By Siarlot Lloyd

 

AURORA is the stage name of 19-year-old Norwegian Aurora Asknes, who is probably best known in the UK for her cover of Oasis’ Half A World Away for the John Lewis Christmas advert in December 2015.

I fell in love with AURORA after seeing her at Green Man last year, and after obsessively listening to her EP, Running With The Wolves, Half A World Away felt oddly polished and commercial before I even knew it was done for an advert.

So I was delighted to find out that with All My Demons Meeting Me As A Friend, AURORA returns to her Scandinavian faerie princess roots, rather than the clean and compressed sound of Half A World Away.

There isn’t a bum song on the album, and if anything choosing stand outs tracks is the hardest thing, since they’re all so good. Runaway and Running With The Wolves definitely deserve a mention, but as I’ve listened to them hundreds of times in the last six months, it’s hard to review them as new tracks, but they’re still fresh even after being listened to to the extent of excluding all other music for about a fortnight.

The two stand out tracks overall though, are probably Conqueror and Warrior, which are both great indie summer anthems. Conqueror sounds like the soundtrack to a road trip in a convertible in glorious sunshine, where Warrior makes me want to dig out my wellies and flower crown and head back to Green Man.

The only song that doesn’t really fit is Murder Song, as it sounds oddly like a remix of itself – that’s not to say isn’t still a brilliant song – it just feels like the acoustic version included on the deluxe album fits in better with AURORA’s overall sound.  However, when combined with the more electronica influences in Winter Bird, the two show AURORA’s versatility.

So, if you’re looking for a new artist to listen to this summer, and you like eerily beautiful lyrics, a rich atmospheric sound and insanely catchy melodies, you’ll love AURORA. And she’s still only 19.