''Serena Maneesh'' (or ''Serena-Maneesh'') is the debut album by

Serena Maneesh Serena-Maneesh (previously spelled Serena Maneesh, sometimes shortened to S-M) is a Norwegian alternative rock band from Oslo. Biography The team of musicians who each contribute to the band's sound is organized around songwriter Emil Nikolaisen ...

. The album was partly recorded in

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

's respected Electrical Audio Recordings studio in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

as well as in various facilities in

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and

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. Contributors to the album include

Sufjan Stevens Sufjan Stevens ( ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He has released nine solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists. Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nomi ...

Martin Bisi Martin Bisi (born 1961) is an American producer and songwriter. He is known for recording important records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, The Dresden Dolls, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, Ang ...

(who worked with

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...

and

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

) and co-producer Daniel Smith of

Danielson Famile Danielson is an American rock band from Clarksboro, New Jersey, that plays indie pop gospel music. The group consists of frontman Daniel Smith and a number of various artists with whom he collaborates. Smith has also released solo work as Brot ...

. The album yielded two singles: " Drain Cosmetics" in June 2006, and "Sapphire Eyes" in October 2006. "Beehiver II" is an alternative version of the song "Beehiver," first released on the band's 2002 EP '' Fixxations''. An alternate version of "Sapphire Eyes," subtitled ''Serena-Maneesh Refix'', was released as a digital single, as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

on the "Drain Cosmetics" single, and on the split single with

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

band Blood on the Wall.

Reception

Critical reception to the album was positive.

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

graded the album 8.6 out of 10 and rated the album as one of the ''Top 50 Albums of 2005''. Norway's national newspaper ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' rated it ''Norwegian Album of the Year'', and

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

awarded the album 4 stars out of 5.

allmusic – Serena Maneesh AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

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Track listing

All tracks written by Emil Nikolaisen. # "Drain Cosmetics" – 3:41 # "Selina's Melodie Fountain" – 5:39 # "Un-Deux" – 1:56 # "Candlelighted" – 6:36 # "Beehiver II" – 4:44 # "Her Name Is Suicide" – 3:44 # "Sapphire Eyes" – 7:09 # "Don't Come Down Here" – 7:20 # "Chorale Lick" – 3:16 # "Simplicity" – 1:56 # "Your Blood in Mine" – 12:09 ;Vinyl-only bonus tracks #

"Untitled #1" # "Untitled #2"

Personnel

*Emil Nikolaisen: vocals, guitar, bass, samples, organ, vibes, drums, piano, harmonium, mellotron, mandolin *Anders Møller: percussion *David Wallumrød: organ *Anders Salomon Lidal: flute, analog synth *Sondre Tristan Midttun: guitar *Lina Holmström: vocals *Eivind Schou: violin *Hilma Nikolaisen: vocals *Håvard Krogedal: cello, organ *Harald Frøland: guitar *Sufjan Stevens: flute, marimba *Inge Svege: harmonica *Hilde Bialach: cello *Samuel Durling: Indian vibes *Dag Stiberg: sax *Daniel Smith: backing vocals *Asle Eikrem: tamburin

Production

*Christian Engfelt: mixing *Marius Bodin: mixing *Morten Lund: mastering *Ingar Hunskaar: pre-mastering *Tommy Akerholdt: drums, co-arranger *Björn Engelmann: mastering *Martin Bisi: samples, mixing *Espen Høydalsvik: percussion, engineer *Greg Norman: sound engineer

Release history

External links

Serena Maneesh@HoneyMilk
Artist page (domestic label)
Serena Maneesh website

References

{{Authority control 2005 debut albums Serena-Maneesh albums Albums produced by Emil Nikolaisen