EMMON CLOSET WANDERINGS ALBUM WONDERLAND RELEASE: FEBRUARY 18, 2009 REVIEW: FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Many people immediately took Emma Nylén's solo work to their hearts, but her somewhat indie oriented background kept me off the Emmon bandwagon for quite some time. "The Art & the Evil" eventually found its way into my collection and as parts of it were marked by quirky brilliance, a brand new album sparked my curiosity.

"Closet Wanderings", while mostly close to its predecessor, explores many different areas. "Secrets & Lies" is ultra cool electro, bordering on futurepop, as is bouncy "Urban Diseases" with a marvelous, almost Italo-like, melody line. Leanings toward her indie roots can be heard in "Torturous Pleasure" and "Feel the Music", where more acoustics are used and the song structure are more straight forward. While I prefer the more electronic side of Emmon, both these sound styles work very well on "Closet Wanderings". Enhancing the album even further are a couple of beautiful instrumentals, like the breezy "Belarusian Night".

Overall, this is a high quality electropop album, efficiently conveying Nylén's all round skills. Song writing, sound tweaking and thoughtful lyricism come easy to this Swedish talent and hopefully the world will see it this time.

NIKLAS FORSBERG