Aurora - A Different Kind of Human: Step II

The Guardian 80

(Decca)
Breathy Norwegian vocalist whose songs deal with everything from outdated gender roles to ecology invents her own pop

Norway’s Aurora Aksnes has long been on the cusp of a breakthrough. In 2015, she added a breathy vocal to a John Lewis advert about space exploration, covering Oasis’ Half the World Away and scoring a lone Top 20 hit. Earlier this year she cropped up on three songs on the Chemical Brothers’ album No Geography, a move that would have translated into further singles chart success a decade ago. Not your typical pop star – the tellingly-titled A Different Kind of Human touches on ecological disaster (The Seed), male suicide rates (The River) and outmoded gender roles (Daydreamer) – Aurora eschews her fellow Scandinavian hitmakers’ penchant for intense lyrical navel-gazing in favour of more fantastical fare that pairs Robyn’s galloping dance-pop with the airy soundscapes of Enya.