Norwegian songwriter Siv Jakobsen has returned with her first new music since 2020’s delightful album A Temporary Soothing. The new song, “Most of the Time”, was prompted by a visit to a city she used to live in. She continues:
“I knew that in going there it might awaken some difficult memories, but I was completely taken aback by how intensely I felt pulled back into who I was and how I felt all those years ago. I realised I had some unpacking to do, so that I could begin to properly come to terms with and understand those memories.
“Most of the Time’ is about not being able to forget a particularly difficult relationship from my past. When left undealt with, the memories seemed to heighten in my sleep, in my subconscious, day and night, almost as if I was being haunted. It’s about how our past affects our future, how it can affect our personalities morphing into someone slightly different. Being back in this place again after such a long time was a much greater shock to my system than I would have ever thought it could be, and it forced me to unbox a lot of things I thought I had safely stored away in the back corners of my mind. In the end, it’s about reminding myself that I am feeling better now, most of the time.”
That feeling of being haunted comes to life in the delicate but perfectly detailed arrangement of whisper thin-acoustic guitar, murmuring strings and spectral backing vocals. Jakobsen might be haunted by intense memories, but they’re not horrible ones – they’re just hard for her to relive knowing they’re deep in the past, in a former version of her life. In her gentle vocal, we can hear Jakobsen struggling to contend with the deep emotion she once had, which is now unexpectedly opening up inside her once again. “I wanna know what it feels like to be alone without you in my mind,” she gently admits, “I wanna know what it feels like to dream a dream without you hanging around, circling around in my head.” It’s a simple request, but one that betrays the invisible wounds Jakobsen carries with her – and she brings them to light stunningly here.
Watch the lyric video for “Most Of The Time” below, or listen to the song on streaming platforms.
You can find Siv Jakobsen on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. She’s also got these intimate dates ahead:
26th September – Brussels, Witlof Bar
27th September – Utrecht, Tivolivredenburg – Cloud 9
29th September – London, The Slaughtered Lamb
