Somehow Life Got In The Way (Ladybird)

Isabella Lundgren

Released November 5, 2014

DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review

YouTube:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_my7knhVq1uO30eVEugXj_4gNoGycqvPZ8

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/7eYV6gKGKsNlmdfVrRPwVo?si=2ENJEm6PRwud00BWf_bYuw

About:

The debut album It Had To Be You (2012) was a hit with critics and audiences alike. Her voice was compared to Billie Holiday’s and she became associated with The American Songbook.
Her second album also contains fresh interpretations from The American Songbook and everything from melancholic spirituals and blues to fine-tuned Broadway ballads and pure swing. But half of the album’s music is newly written material from the pens of Isabella, Peter Asplund, Mats Hålling and Carl Bagge, and it is music that reflects our own contemporary times.
The production is signed by Peter Asplund, who is also a trumpet soloist, and Mats Hålling, who conducts the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, and the Carl Bagge Trio is on the accompaniment. To this some well-known soloists; Joakim Milder and Robert Nordmark, tenor sax and Dicken Hedrenius, trombone.

Track Listing:

1. Procession (Mats Hålling) 1:40

2. Everything Must Change (Bernhard Ighner) 5:37

3. While We’re Young (Alec Wilder/Mortimer Palitz/William Engwick) 4:32

4. Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer) 4:44

5. If He Walked into My Life (Jerry Herman) 5:30

6. Somehow Life Got in the Way (Peter Asplund/Lotta Asplund) 5:15

7. Down with Love (Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg) 4:31

8. That’s Just the Way I Am (Peter Asplund/Jim Leopardo) 7:53

9. Why Was I Born (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein) 5:59

10. Eudaimonia (Carl Bagge/Isabella Lundgren) 5:17

11. Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen (trad) 7:04

12. A Time for Everything (Marcus Sturewall/Isabella Lundgren) 5:43

Personnel:

The Nordic Chamber Orchestra

Isabella Lundgren: vocals

Carl Bagge: piano

Niklas Fernqvist: bass

Daniel Fredriksson: drums

Mats Hålling: arranger & conductor

Peter Asplund: trumpet (soloist on #8, #11)

Also featuring:

Joakim Milder: tenor saxophone (soloist on #9)

Robert Nordmark: tenor saxohone (soloist on #7)

Dicken Hedrenius: trombone (soloist on #4, #8)

Recorded at Härnösand Theater by Henrik Heinrich, Nevo Studios, by Henrik Heinrich

Mastered by Thomas Eberger

Mixed by Pål Svenre

Producer: Peter Asplund

Review:

Somehow Life Got In The Way, the latest from Sweden’s Isabella Lundgren, is a mix of (mostly) lush ballads. At 28, her maturity shows with heart-heavy material, including “Everything Must Change” and “While We’re Young” followed by strong originals, all sung in English. Her delivery is patient and potent, recalling Judy Garland in her prime. “Why Was I Born” and “Down With Love” offer juicy, free-spirited swing.

John Ephland (DownBeat)