MOG

MOGstars: 7 out of 10

Norwegian punk pixie Ida Maria is anything but demure. Her rampant stage shows have already made her famous for self-inflicted concussions and cracked ribs, whilst recent single I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked is hardly the calling card of a shrinking violet. With her debut album Fortress Round My Heart clocking in at just a touch over half an hour, it is time to see whether her high-octane tracks can set the listener ablaze.

Scanning the record’s early singles, it isn’t hard to see why Maria has become the darling of not-quite-mainstream radio – opener Oh My God is an almost perfect blast of indie pop. The guitars ring and drums clash with an intimidating, and leg shaking, potency, whilst Ida’s frantic vocals are a real triumph of energy over precision. To compare her sound to Blondie would be an obvious, and not wholly incorrect, observation, yet Maria always sounds more threatening as she pushes her voice to its limits, an cigarette fuelled snarl appearing beneath its ragged edges. … When You’re Naked… is another solid gold single – the none to subtle chorus made for drunken sing-a-longs on indie club dancefloors, indeed it is not much of a stretch to think of Maria herself joining in with the post pub caterwauls. Sexual rather than sultry, the track is satisfyingly filthy and serves as a major standout on the album.

The remaining highlight is, however a rather different affair. Stella is a darkly thoughtful piece – musing on God’s relationship with a "43 year old hooker from downtown". As the man upstairs hands of the keys of the world to the working girl in return for a night of love, Maria realises   "how much you wanna give away just to feel loved". Sacrilegious it may be, but at the same time it’s reassuringly sardonic and pleasurably witty, not to mention thrillingly frantic.

Yet away from these key singles, the album tends to drop in quality. Morning Light is perfectly acceptable as a second-rate track, but lacks the pure excitement found elsewhere. The desperate longing of Drive Away My Heart, a track that sees a depressed and unloved Ida fall into a destructive relationship, is undermined as her voice struggles to cope – on the more rampant tracks her straining vocals may be charming, but on this more personal song they become a little grating. On the softer ballad Keep Me Warm, Maria at times croaks rather than sings, similarly on the sedate See Me Through there are more notes missed than hit.  

Listening to Fortress… it is easy to tell why Ida Maria has become a firm favourite on the live circuit – she hurls herself head first into every song, hoping that passion can overcome her deficiency in technical skill. But the mistakes you accept on the road are less easy to forgive on disk. Although at times her straining voice demonstrates how much she puts into the songs – the standout tracks would be a little more pedestrian without it – it can also ruin them. And so, while the power of this record propels it at breakneck speed, a little more control is needed to prevent Maria from crashing.