Maria Mena - All This Time

  by John Clarkson

published: 26 / 4 / 2010

Label: Upside Records
Format: CDS

intro

Breezy-sounding pop on excellent single from Norwegian singer-songwriter, Maria Mena

Young Scandinavian singer-songwriter Maria Mena has already made a considerable impact in her native Norway and across mainland Europe. She has won a Grammy for Best Female Artist in her own country. Mena’s single, ‘All This Time’, has entered the Top 20 in seven countries and her album, ‘Cause and Effect’, has also sold well. While as yet an unknown in the UK, she now seems set to repeat that success. ‘All This Time’, which has just come out on Sony offshoot Upside Records, has just started to pick up airplay on Radio 2 and ‘Cause and Effect’ will follow in the summer. ‘All This Time’ is a breezy-sounding pop gem which features a cascading piano and tinkling guitars. “You self destructive little girl/Pick yourself up/Don’t blame the world/so you screwed up/But you’re going to be okay,” sings Mena with gorgeously delicate vocals as an opening line. In a neat twist, however, it turns out that she is addressing herself rather than someone else. ‘All This Time’ also reveals itself to have a spikiness. “Think all the mean girls that pulled your hair are barefoot now and pregnant there/And you write pop songs and get to travel round the world,” Mena adds a few lines later. There are two versions of ‘All this Time’ on the single, an ‘Ash Howes Radio Mix’ and the ‘Original Radio Mix’. While the first is more orchestrated and somewhat over dressed, occasionally drowning out Mena’s fragile vocals, the sparser latter version captures perfectly all the sublime subtleties of Mena’s excellent performance.

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