Album Review

Foreign Slippers – Farewell To The Old Ghosts

• 21st Jun 2012

The debut album from Foreign Slippers, the musical vehicle for Sweden’s Gabi Froden, is a beautiful mix of folk and pop music blended to create a catchy and atmospheric sound. It swings between the delicate beauty of the slower tracks and several upbeat pop songs, and all are perfect vehicles for Froden’s fine voice.

This release has been three years in the making. It started as a solo project and has ended as smoothing much grander, with input from other musicians including Froden’s husband and drummer Phil Wilkinson. But there is only one star on this album.

It All Starts Now, which is released as a single, opens the album with a song that builds from a delicate acoustic track into something grand as an organ backs the tender vocals. Two People In You also starts slowly but then Froden lets her beautiful voice soar, powerful yet still note perfect, as the emotion comes through strongly. It’s heartbreaking, with the inner conflict clear from the lyrics perfectly displayed.

Among the slower tracks Island is perhaps the simplest lyrically. It tends towards the repetitive and has a lo-fi feel but it saved by the quality of the vocals, which lift simple phrases into something profound. Throw The Lot In has a similar straightforward approach but here the delicate instrumental backing gives counterpoint to the vocals.

Avalanche is probably the poppiest song on the album. It has an uplifting air, yet there is a hidden torment as the singer wonders how much we can really know about each other and how much gets buried. It’s a powerful track and a fine one. Is That You is also a good pop track, and it uses change of tempo well as it rises and falls.

Thank The Moon is more upbeat and strident in its chorus yet the verses are slower and atmospheric, and the contrast works well. Under Your Ribs has a harsher electronic tone and features a great guitar solo from Matt Jones. This one heads towards soft rock territory but without the cliches.

The closing When You Feel The Fear is a lovely piano led track, the vocals here frail and delicate. You can almost see the single spotlight picking out the singer as she sits alone at the piano pouring her heart out. It’s quite beautiful, and a great way to end an album.

Gabi Froden is, amongst other things, an artist, author, singer, songwriter and illustrator of children’s books. In this album she uses just some of her talents to create something that is different and memorable. Many of those who gain the folk-pop tag tend towards blandness, but that is definitely not the case here.

Lyrically, a strong theme of redemption comes through in several of the songs on this album, and the notion of starting over is never far away. I hope that this is just the start for Foreign Slippers and that there are more albums like this to come from the talented Ms Froden.