It’s an embarrassingly tenuous link from the last sentence in my previous post but with the word ‘rocket’ in mind, I just want to share a song that has lodged itself in my brain for now. I can’t find out much about Rockettothesky at the moment apart from the fact that it’s the name used by 30-year old Norwegian singer, musician and poet Jenny Hval for some of her output. I find this particular song, which has been around for at least a couple of years, incredibly haunting and melancholy – it presses the musical buttons in me that make me want to weep and I don’t know why! But it may sound familiar to you if you’ve seen recent UK TV adverts for Femail, the women’s magazine supplement of the Daily Mail. I’m certainly no DM reader, but I have to concede to their good taste in rather bizarrely choosing an extract from this song, which seems a million miles away from some of the Femail articles I found online today (on ‘leggings that promise to banish muffin tops’, etc.)
I’m reminded a little of ‘Willow’s Song’ from the excellent film, ‘The Wicker Man’ and I think Jenny’s voice is also in a similar vein to that of Kelli Ali (who, for trivia fans, recorded a version of ‘Willow’s Song’ on her solo album ‘Butterfly’ as well as previously singing it under the title of ‘How Do’ on the Sneaker Pimps’ album, ‘Becoming X’). I can see this leading to a whole new post about that great film one day - but for now I’ll forego the wicker man, and give you ‘Grizzly Man’ instead. Tissues at the ready…