To say that Swedish singer/songwriter
Anna Ternheim found a sympathetic figure for collaboration in
Matt Sweeney turned out to be an understatement, given that their resulting effort,
The Night Visitor, with
Sweeney handling production and arrangements at a series of Nashville sessions, is one strikingly enjoyable listen. The realm of stately country/Americana productions, from
Lee Hazlewood and
the Band to
the Walkabouts and beyond, is a pretty long and storied one, and
The Night Visitor fits well within that tradition, but
Ternheim's enjoyable singing and the appropriately moody though by no means constantly downbeat music result in a series of strong, well-sequenced songs. "Solitary Move" kicks things off with hushed, stark chamber pop with steady acoustic guitar and swirling textures, down to lovely filigrees on the concluding break, a sense of cryptic melodrama that rarely leaves the record. A song like "All Shadows" is almost all cryptic melodrama, doing the combination of stinging feedback, distant drums, and string parts very well. Some other notably strong moments include the excellent "Bow Your Head," which takes a statelier, lofty folk stance, sweetly moving the chorus along before a bit of a quieter rock snarl breaks in a further verse, and the gentle "Walking Aimlessly," quicker and a little more freewheeling, reflecting the title just enough. "Ghost of a Man" is much more hushed and focused in contrast, with swift but still genteel acoustic guitar leading the way, while the fiddle on "Lorelie-Marie" and the accordion on "What Remains?" add to the sense of place and history being invoked throughout without feeling like museum pieces of authenticity as fetish. ~ Ned Raggett