Want List: New Molly Nilsson Album Coming For Our “Extreme” Times

molly nilsson animation — Molly is still not ready to commit to full color – photo ©2021 Graw Böckler

It seems like my first encounter with Molly Nilsson was 20 years ago instead of merely a decade. So much water has passed underneath that bridge! Has it really been almost three years since I last saw her? Touring behind her then new “Twenty-Twenty” album that reflected an optimism that was borne out in one way [leader of America] but was premature in another [pandemic]. Yesterday the mailing list got the news that her pandemic-gestating album is coming in January 15, 2022 and it will be a little different.

While she’s been plowing a DIY synthpop furrow since 2008, she can’t help from growing out of that genre as she travels the world singing her thoughtful songs that straddle introspection and anthemic joy. Her last album, 2018’s “Twenty-Twenty,” clearly showed the bedsit days were being left behind for something larger. And now she’s using distorted guitars to underpin her ongoing war against Power.

It’s me,
vs. the Black hole at the centre of the Galaxy
Who we are vs. Who we’d like to be
Get ready for the Fight of the Century
Come on and get excited
Everyone’s invited
It gets closer by the hour
Here we go,
Absolute Power
“Absolute Power”

Sign me up. I have four of her albums [including #466 – with fingerprint of “History”] but need the rest of them. She is clearly one of the modern acts that strongly resonates with me. The album cover is another of her minimal black + white designs that probably used to be down to her reproducing her CD-Rs on the road at copy shops but has now become her aesthetic.

Molly Nilsson extreme cover art — Night School | EURO | CD/LP |2022

Molly Nilsson: Extreme – EURO – CD [2022]

A caveat. “Extreme” will be digitally ready on January 15th. If you want a physical copy, the LP/CD will be a little later on the 28th. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the sticky LP production bubble which is making everything later and later these days. The titles are not listed yet but the video for “Absolute Power” is out there if you look for it. The LP will be available from her Euro label, Night School Records or the artist’s webstore in a translucent blue vinyl edition of 500 with a poster. €20.00 on the antique format and €10.00 for the silver disc. Ms. Nilsson is only selling the LP on her webstore so we’ll spit the options to pre-order. Night School Records also says that there will be a “Dinked edition” on LP for retail stores only… whatever that means! I would like to think that I might get to see her a fourth time in my sleepy hamlet after this… mess… is behind us. America looks forward to more of the hopeful art of Ms. Nilsson.