Perhaps Finland’s Ina Forsman came to your attention with her self-titled debut or on the Ruf Records Blues Caravan 2016. The gifted 24-year-old vocalist returns with her more expansive, fully realized sophomore effort Been Meaning to Tell You. She’s been singing professionally since age 17. Growing up in Helsinki, she says, “I was six years old when I first said out loud that I wanted to be a singer. My influences go back to the time my aunt gave me my first Christina Aguilera album when I was seven.” She eventually gravitated toward the blues, getting guidance from Finnish harmonica legend Helge Tallqvist. This album proves that blues is just one of several idioms she has already mastered.
It’s a gift to be a singer but Forsman proves her mettle as a songwriter too. While she did mostly originals on her debut with just one cover, all lyrics here were written by Forsman with co-writing help on the music for most of them. We use “without a net” as almost a cliché these days but Forsman’s path to this album conjures up that phrase. While gigging in NYC, she lost her phone that had her new material on it. It took her two more years to pen a fresh batch of songs, forcing her out of her box, so to speak. The results are stunning, perfect vehicles for the amazing emotive and technical range of her powerhouse voice.
She kept some of the elements that her made her debut so successful. She returned to Wire Recording in Austin, Texas, where her band once again included Laura Chavez (guitar)and brass from The Texas Horns, led by producer/saxophonist Mark ‘Kaz’ Kazanoff who surrounded her with a different rhythm section but kept the vibrant grooves intact. Red Young stands out on piano and keyboards, which drive many of these songs,
The opener “Be My Home” reveals her sultry side but she quickly proves capable of delivering breakneck funk in “Get Mine,” before crooning breezy R&B/acid-jazz in “All Good.” The horn-drenched “Genius” is pure vintage soul while “Miss Mistreated” offers simmering slow blues. As on her debut, the subject is often relationships – good and bad. The latter is abut getting out of a bad one and “Who Hurt You” is about an abusive relationship her best friend was in.
As you’ve gleaned there’s more than one style, as if she’s bent on surprises. For example, “Every Single Beat” brings in Latin rhythms while “Chains” percolates with percussion and gang chants. Yes, you’re getting the picture. These are certainly not all blues songs. Many cross into rock and pop territory. She tries some interesting lyrical approaches too, singing “Why You Gotta Be That Way” on sexual harassment from a man’s point of view, which follows the female perspective on “Whatcha Gonna Do.” The full breadth of her vocals closes the album on the a cappella “Sunny,” one of two songs she entirely penned. It could take your breath away.
You might just run out and tell several friends that you heard one of the most amazing singers you have in some time. Maybe we should all be lucky enough to lose our phone and be forced to start over.
