Review: The Northern Belle plug into life’s happy-sad cycles on third album, ‘We Wither, We Bloom’

“My heart breaks in too many pieces to collect,” discloses Stine Andreassen. Such crushing blows are dressed up as poetry with satin stitches. These accents embroider the edges of her lark vocals, colorful patches of fabric that are as striking as devasting to the soul. With “We Wither, We Bloom,” the very lean title cut to The Northern Belle‘s third studio record, Andreassen gathers up wilted and crunchy petals of her life, through various stages of sadness and joy, to perfectly capture humanity’s throbbing nucleus.

We Wither, We Bloom, produced by Marcus Forsgren, nose-dives right into the heart of life’s vibrancy with a gun-smoked immersion, switching between celebrating fresh blossoms, no matter when they arrive (“They call me late bloomer and I’m proud of it,” Andreassen squares off), and budding motherhood (“I was born to love this much / Almost too much to bear,” she renders on “Born to Be a Mother”). Performance after performance arrests the senses, evoking an uncannily retro-70s aroma with a folk/rock pixie dust. Andreassen’s agility across her melodies are breathtaking, as swirling Fleetwood Mac-bent production gathers around her.

From forlorn opener “Gemini” to the somber “Two Minds” and even the bedazzler “Evelyn,” the record cracks open a deep sparkle, a medicated storytelling agent in these terribly grim and emotional times. A 12-song mood-board, always evoking the most jolting of human emotions, it’s like curling up with a fleece blanket on a bitter winter’s morn, the crackling campfire casting a soft glow, as you take yet another sip of steaming hot cocoa.

The imposing seven-piece sculpt a heavenly, out-of-body experience that not only wrinkles the nose in delight but similiarly provokes an analysis of one’s own journey in this very weary, yet totally rewarding, life. As its title suggests, We Wither, We Bloom is as much about this existence’s overwhelming brightness as it is the suffocating (and inevitable) gloom.

Follow The Northern Belle on their socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website