Norwegian-American artist Hanna Andréa squeezes quite a lot of modern-life angst into four tracks on Braveheart, but crucially remembers that pop is allowed to be fun while it’s doing the existential stuff.
‘GET OFF YOUR PHONE’ is the immediate earworm, all restless guitars and bright, punchy pop wrapped around a very fair complaint about doomscrolling your actual life away. It’s playful rather than preachy, which helps.
Then things get dreamier. ‘Pinnacles’ is melancholic and airy, ‘Float’ drifts into softer trip-hop territory, and the title track goes full cinematic drama with piano, orchestral flourishes and a big emotional finish. Across the EP, Andréa keeps moving between polished pop and something more intimate without losing the thread.
The theme running underneath it all is pretty simple: modern life is noisy, perfection is exhausting, and maybe we’d all be better off looking up from our phones occasionally. Fair.
There’s also a proper theatrical instinct here, which makes sense given Andréa composed Muse! The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical with Lisa Sanderson, a production that went from Lincoln Center to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. She clearly likes thinking in big pictures.
Braveheart is polished, ambitious pop with enough heart underneath the gloss to stop it feeling too neat.