Malin Pettersen is pretty well-known in her native Norway. She appeared on Norway’s version of American Idol. In 2018, she won a Spellemann Prize for Best Country Album. She has also become known as a voice actress for American movie franchises such as Lego and My Little Pony. In recent years she has also gained traction here in the states, sharing a bill with artists like Emmylou Harris and Brad Paisley and touring with the likes of Whitney Rose and Sam Outlaw.
You could also say that the U.S. has gained some traction with her. Of the new album Wildhorse, she said, “America has inspired this album in a very direct way. I am fascinated by the way America is so many things…so many worlds in one.”
You can hear immediately how America has inspired this album. “California” is the lead track on the album and draws pretty heavily on the California-country sound that goes back to The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers.
There are a lot of reasons to love this album. “Particles” is one of them. Pettersen’s vocals are best described as airy. Along with the mellow (sometimes jazzy) melody, her vocals make this song seem like what would happen if Hope Sandoval fronted a country band. The same can be said for “Holding Lonely”, right up until the end of the song, which is so freeform that it seems like it could have been done by an experimental jam band.
The way the vocals were recorded for this album makes you feel like you’re floating through a psychedelic country day dream. Her voice is the perfect compliment to the spacey sounds of the pedal steel throughout the album.
While most of the album hangs out in a spacey psychedelic-country area, “Mr. Memory” is a honky-tonk song. It is more upbeat than the rest of the songs and features a piano part that made to get people dancing. The theme is classic for the honky tonk also. Like so many great honky-tonk songs, she sings about drinking to try to forget someone when Mr. Memory meets Mr. Bottle.
This is a great country album for a lot of reasons. For one, it’s more than just songs about pickup trucks, back roads, and red dirt. For another, the sound of Pettersen’s vocals make it a lock that you won’t hear many country albums like this one. Her voice is so pretty that you don’t just want to hear her sing, you want to hear it in any capacity. Like reading a bedtime story to a child.
