The Spirit of Ice

The second album from this strange and fascinating Danish singer finds her continuing her equally strange and fascinating exploration of jazz, cabaret, and synth pop sounds by means of a mixed bag of original songs and jazz and pop standards. Like her eponymous debut, Spirit of Yesterday is consistently fun but sometimes a bit befuddling; Thulla's voice still sounds like a conference call between Macy Gray, Betty Boop, and Billie Holiday, and her English lyrics are still charmingly loopy ("Even you're walking steady in a drugstore/You just carry on!"). Her band's dark, organ-driven backing keeps things grounded in a smoky nightclub groove (Dan Hemmer's Hammond B-3 playing is especially noteworthy), and there are some appealingly quirky instrumental touches, such as the musical saw on "Walking Steady in a Drugstore" and the nose flute on "Let the Sunshine Change Your Heart." On a less charming note, the male vocalist who joins Thulla on "How'd You Like to Spoon With Me?" sounds grungy and dissolute, and turns a song that should have been sexy and flirtatious into what sounds like a sidewalk come-on from a dirty old man. The album's most unique and immediately accessible moment comes at the very end in the form of an electro-pop arrangement of "My Way," which features an extended accordion solo with harpsichord obbligato. Recommended overall.