Following the attention heaped upon 2002’s lovely I’m Coming Home, Norway’s most famous ex-postman Thomas Hansen began to wilt, preferring to “hide behind the beer”. Straightened out and under the wing of producer Mark Nevers (Lambchop), Hey Harmony is the product of a frantic’s week recording in Nashville, spotlighting the 26-year-old’s Anglophilia and US country-folk leanings. Sort of Neil Young and Donovan tripping at The Wicker Man’s solstice fest. “45 Seconds”could be Robert Wyatt playing with greasy guitars; “New Apartment”is a new take on flying the nest (“So I made a dinner for myself/And put on a record with The Hives”), and closer “Institution”is the most moving thing I’ve heard all year.
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