Perhaps I’m a little too old school but I have great difficulty writing the word ‘wanna’. It’s like I’m always looking to like draw it out to ‘want to’, man. Innit? I’m sure the correct form will come back in fashion one day. It can’t come soon enough.
Having got that off my chest we’ve featured Moyka numerous times over the last year but she’s back again on the strength of the fact that she has varied her style significantly for this song, and for the better.
She is a producer as much as a singer-songwriter and that fact has manifested itself in previous songs we’ve reviewed which have been heavily synth-oriented and in some cases strongly reminiscent of those of established artists like Aurora, Sigrid and Highasakite, such as ‘As long as you’re here’, one of two single tracks she released last March and which had Aurora stamped all over it.
The other little gripe I’ve had about her is a lack of imagination in the selection of material. Many of her songs deal with affairs of the heart; break-ups, getting back together again and so on but in a passive way which I suppose is appropriate to her mainly younger age range fans. Sometimes those songs need a bit of spice though, but that’s been absent.
This song, ‘I don’t wanna hold on’ (ha! – I did it!) follows a similar lyrical pattern – it’s about wanting to put a break-up behind her and move on – but she has made a considerable change to the musical format. It starts off like the soundtrack to a sci-fi film where we’re trying to establish contact with extra-terrestrials but very quickly develops into what for Moyka is a fairly serene power ballad with a catchy chorus which ebbs and flows beautifully, complemented by neat lyrics such as “Oh, lovers eventually kiss goodbye/And (for) others the world keeps on drifting by.”
The other thing that is evident in this song is that she can sing. Previously the synths have dominated the larynx, so to speak.
Ok, I suppose I could have another moan about it channelling both Ms Aksnes and Ingrid Håvik of Highasakite again in different sections of the song but all in all I’m more confident than I have been since I heard ‘Bones’ a couple of years back that Moyka can make a big impression on the Norwegian scene. Presumably the song will be a track on her debut album, which should be released this year.