''Apocalypse, Girl'' (stylized as ''Apocalypse, girl'') is the fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

musician

Jenny Hval Jenny Hval (born 11 July 1980) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and novelist. She has released eight solo albums, two under the alias Rockettothesky and six under her own name. In 2015, Hval released her fifth studio ...

, released on June 9, 2015 through

Sacred Bones Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has released recordings from artists including Zola Jesus, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Blanck Mass, Crystal Stilts, Marissa ...

and Su Tissue Records. Music videos have been made for "That Battle Is Over", "Sabbath" and "Take Care of Yourself".

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 79, based on 20 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". ''

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...

'' said "both her songs and her subject matter hold back from shocking the listener by virtue of their content, and yet they make a startling impact—creating a headspace that leads to nowhere in the same moment that it paves the way to salvation." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote: "The album wrestles with many of the same ideas s ''Innocence Is Kinky''">Innocence_Is_Kinky.html" ;"title="s ''Innocence Is Kinky">s ''Innocence Is Kinky'' set against an erotic sonic futurescape of spoken word, warped choirs, sci-fi electronics and her typically pillow-soft vocals.... It’s provocative, but these are ideas rarely heard in pop, which makes it all the more compelling." ''Consequence of Sound'' described the album as "an understated mesh of free jazz and artful improvisation, guiding us out of the nightmare capitalism has dreamed for us and into sexual liberation and individual rebirth." ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' said "''Apocalypse, girl'' is a shift toward

orchestral pop Orchestral pop (sometimes called ork-pop for short) is pop music that has been arranged and performed by a symphonic orchestra. It may also be conflated with the terms symphonic pop or chamber pop. History During the 1960s, pop music on radio an ...

after the noisy rock of 2013's ''Innocence Is Kinky'', but Hval loses none of her

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

inclinations in the process." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' said: "Like all of her best work, it finds new ways to provoke, and new parts of your brain to light up."

Accolades

Track listing

Notes * "Kingsize" quotes and translated the poem "En Stor Sten af en Lille sten at Være" by Mette Moestrup.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Apocalypse, Girl''. * Jenny Hval – vocals, effects, keyboards, arrangements, recording * Håvard Volden – guitar, bass * Kyrre Laastad – drums *

Øystein Moen Øystein Moen (born 16 August 1980) is a Norwegian jazz pianist and composer known for his participation in the bands Jaga Jazzist and Puma. Career Moen was born in Steinkjer, and studied music on the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonsevator ...

– synths, mellotron *

Okkyung Lee Okkyung Lee (born 1975 in Daejeon, South Korea) is a South Korean cellist, improviser, and composer. Lee moved to Boston in 1993, where she received a dual bachelor's degree in Contemporary Writing and Production and Film Scoring (Berklee Colle ...

– cello *

Thor Harris Thor Harris (born February 7, 1965) is an artist, sculptor, musician, painter, carpenter and handyman. He was the percussionist for Swans (2010–2016). He has performed with Shearwater (2001–2010), Bill Callahan, The Angels of Light, Lisa ...

– various mallets, percussion * Rhodri Davies – harp * Lara Myrvoll – beats * Syster Alma – sampling *

Lasse Marhaug Lasse Marhaug (born 10 September 1974) is a Norwegian musician who primarily works in the field of noise music but frequently drifts into other areas such as improvisation, jazz, rock and extreme metal. Marhaug has also been involved in creating ...

– production, mixing, arrangements, recording *

Rob Halverson Rob Halverson is an American record producer, songwriter and studio engineer, who lives in Austin, Texas. He is also a film composer. ''The Austin Chronicle'' claims Halverson "a low-key but nonetheless very important figure in Austin music sinc ...

– additional recording * Sam Grant – additional recording *

Marcus Schmickler Marcus Schmickler (born November 15, 1968, in Cologne) is a German composer, musician, and producer. He is also known under the pseudonym Pluramon. Background In 1968 he was born as the son of an industrial salesman and a baker's daughter in C ...

– mastering * Zia Anger – photography * Lisbeth Vogler – cover

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Sacred Bones Records albums Jenny Hval albums