Jenny Hval is so smart and this song is so lofty. The Norwegian experimental pop artist (and novelist, who knew!) has a history of making challenging music that’s nonetheless totally listenable; her new album sounds more mainstream than ever but still gives us plenty to chew on. In “Ashes to Ashes,” an easy, trance-adjacent hook with the momentum of a Robin song couches a disorienting exploration of the physical versus mental self. The lyrics blur the lines between Hval and her thoughts, framing the opening line as “a dream about a song,” which we think is about a burial that involves both a person’s ashes and a cigarette and has beautiful chord changes. Fast forward to the end, where the trance culminates in her desire to “put two fingers in the earth, into the honeypot,” where she digs her own grave. If you’re following, in this line she’s touching herself, the earth, and mortality all at once, because where does one end and another begin? Listen and enjoy feeling your brain tumble.
