ノルウェーのポップアイコンであるAURORAが、通算4作目となるニュー・アルバム『What Happened To The Heart?』のリリースを発表!

「最もパーソナルで最もカタルシスを感じたアルバムだ」
心臓の詳細な機能と構造は明確には理解されていなかったけれど、心臓は魂の、直感の、そして感情や意思の中心だと信じられていた。それらは脳によるものだと、決定づけられるまでは。論理に飲み込まれてしまう感情。そして、世界はお金や権力、利己主義によって毒されているのだから、こう問いかけずにはいられない。心臓に何が起きたの?―オーロラ、『What Happened To The Heart?』について

TOWER RECORDS限定 クリア・カラーヴァイナル

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2024/04/01）

Already known for her compassionate, altruistic take on alt-pop by this point, AURORA was inspired to write much of her fourth album after reading a 2022 letter by Indigenous activists ("We Are the Earth") calling for revolution in response to climate change. The resulting LP, What Happened to the Heart?, explores motivation, love, philosophy, frustration, and more across a sprawling, 16-song track list that includes some of the singers glossiest, most club-oriented material yet. Much of the time, the albums sound seems almost at odds with its earthly inspirations, but thats only on a surface level. Written on tour and recorded in Norway, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S., it reflects collaborations with a succession of producers -- among them the Chemical Brothers Tom Rowlands, Dave Hamelin (Beyonce, Zara Larsson), Matias Tellez (girl in red, Real Ones), and singer/songwriter Ane Brun -- and is full of appeals to others better natures. Brun is featured on the sinister-sounding "My Name" ("Will you forget I was here?"), one of several songs here to incorporate Eastern scales and melisma alongside pulsing dance beats. A track like "Starvation" dives headlong onto the dancefloor at the end, shifting from marching drum cadences to the club and then to a full-on, throbbing rave as it progresses. Meanwhile, it challenges with questions like "Why do we have to die/For us to see the light?" and "Do I need to be torn just to see who will care?" while also affirming that "My soul is hurting/But I got the stamina." Though most of What Happened to the Heart? lands in a dance-pop middle ground stylistically, ballads like the Brazilian-flavored "The Essence" and synth-enhanced "Dreams" offer room to breathe with their drum-less or drum-light arrangements. By the end of its over-hour-long runtime, AURORA implies that the answer to the early inquiry "Will the edge of my sorrow be gone in the morning?" (from tender orchestral opener "Echo of My Shadow") is no, but her soaring melodies and angular, confrontational club tracks make convincing pleas for the empathy and intentionality needed to turn things around. ~ Marcy Donelson

Rovi