Nanna Øland Fabricius spent her childhood studying ballet, eventually hanging up her pointe shoes for good when a back injury forced her to stop dancing. Looking for another way to let off creative steam, she rechristened herself
Oh Land (an Anglicized spelling of her middle name) and turned to music. On her international debut,
Oh Land shrugs off the strict rules of ballet and embraces the open-ended world of pop, creating an “anything goes” mix of club, dance, and nocturnal electro-pop. Like
Lykke Li, she sometimes comes across like a flower child in a DJ booth, blissfully grafting together genres that may not be entirely compatible. But
Land’s combinations always work, whether she’s layering spoken word verses over disco beats on “Voodoo” or splitting the difference between Motown, tropicalia, and synth pop on “White Nights.” This sort of glittery, eclectic dance music already has a number of torchbearers, and
Oh Land doesn’t rewrite the rule book as much as join the ranks of
La Roux,
Little Boots, and
Janelle Monáe. But that doesn’t keep her debut album from churning out a number of intelligent club anthems, with lead single “Sun of a Gun” -- a four-on-the-floor breakup anthem featuring snaps, synthesizers, and background vocals that sound like pan pipes -- standing out from the rest of the pack. ~ Andrew Leahey