The Norwegian singer of 'Imperia', 'Helena Iren Michaelsen' also pursues a solo career in parallel with her symphonic metal band and offers us in 2020 two albums as do regular metal singers with for example 'Claire-Lyse Von Dach' which released at the same time as 'Helena a new opus 'We Are One' and we could also quote 'Marcella Bovio' with her two magnificent albums 'Unprecedented' from 2016 and 'Through Your Eyes' from 2018. Regarding the Norwegian, May 2020 saw the release of 'A Woman's Diary - Chapter II' target='_blank', the first chapter dating from 2005 and the second album of 2020 was therefore released in early December and is called 'A Woman's Diary - The Hidden Chapter'. The first opus explores different styles and includes mostly fairly quiet compositions in which Helena shows all her vocal talent with, first of all magnificent more or less stripped ballads such as 'I Don't Believe', 'Do You Hear My Cry', 'Eg Ser', 'Rock in the Sea', 'Silence', 'Angel Maria' and 'Goodbye', then melodious mid-tempos more catchy than are 'Streetchild' and 'Happy Birthday' ('you tube video'), the only slightly more energetic tracks being 'Never Again' and 'Imprisoned', closer to symphonic metal and we can also note a rather offbeat but equally endearing title, 'My Desire' flirting with a catchy oriental atmosphere. Regarding the second album 'A Woman's Diary - The Hidden Chapter', these are mainly acoustic covers of very well-known compositions like 'Hallelujah' by 'Leonard Cohen' or 'Summertime' by 'Aaron Neville' or the wonderful song 'Leave The Light On' from 'Beth Hart' (list of tracks below), the atmosphere being much more intimate than the first album, Helena being accompanied by her companion 'Oliver Philipps' on piano who collaborates in the writing and the composition of all her titles. The only original titles are 'Little Ballerina' and 'Keep Your Head Held High', two sentimental songs which, like the rest, are far away from metal but which highlight the soft side of this remarkable singer of classic training which in this exercise conveys a very touching emotion.
In summary, the Norwegian 'Helena Iren Michaelsen' gives us not one but two very good albums and demonstrates once again that, whatever the style, when the talent is there, the result is always quality and, even, if all 'Imperia' fans won't necessarily be won over, these two opuses are intended for a large audience who like sentimental and easily assimilated melody lines...
List of tracks for the album 'A Woman's Diary - The Hidden Chapter'
1 - Don’t Let Daddy Kiss Me ('Motörhead')
2 - Little Ballerina (Original title)
3 - Kjærlighet (Norwegian version of 'Only Love' by 'Nana Mouskouri')
4 - Lost ('Anouk Teeuwe')
5 - Let Down ('Imperia')
6 - Hallelujah ('Leonard Cohen')
7 - Calling St. Cecilia ('Rik Emmett')
8 - Purple Rain ('Prince')
9 - Somewhere Over The Rainbow ('Judy Garland')
10 - Leave The Light On ('Beth Hart')
11 - Summertime ('Aaron Neville')
12 - Memories ('Barbra Streisand')
13 - Keep Your Head Held High (Original title) | |
