Let's Keep This Up Forever

Album Review

Norwegian duo Eva & the Heartmaker consists of singer Eva Weel Skram and her husband, guitarist Thomas Stenersen, plus a backup band, and on their second album, Let's Keep This Up Forever, which is also their major-label debut for Sony, they uphold a Scandinavian pop tradition dating back to ABBA, producing attractive ear candy in a mainstream pop/rock style. Stenersen, who produced the disc, harks back to the Sgt. Pepper's-era Beatles in many of his arrangements, although sometimes his tracks sound like Oasis trying to sound like the Beatles. Either way, the sound picture fills up with chunky guitar chords and keyboard riffs, as countermelodies play off against his wife's upfront vocals. Skram's voice has the baby-doll quality of former Sixpence None the Richer singer Leigh Nash, and it wouldn't be a surprise if she suddenly broke out into a chorus of "Kiss Me." In the moments when her accented English betrays her, she also recalls Björk (for instance on "A Potion of Lust"). "I wanna stay young, I wanna be free," she sings on the opener, an invitation to world travel called "Let's Hit the Road Jack," and that spirit continues through the songs, making this music that is simultaneously ingenuous and highly polished.