Anna-Lena Winter



A picturesque view of Winter’s world – full of passion and overloaded of talent….



The Swedish band Winter is fronted by the charismatic lead singer and guitarist AnnaLena Winter, with new guitarist Fredrik Lidin, Abbe Abrahamsson on drums and Johan Stromberg on bass. A MATTER OF TIME features eleven self-penned songs focused on love, lust knowing somebody and being somebody, and letting people go.



The opening track A Matter of time is a hearty song, brimming with soulful grainy vocals and a strong sense of direction, with a catchy chorus and arned with a tone that is both contemplative and compelling.
Face on the wall is a sensational track about someone lingering long after they’re gone and unifies rock-pop whilst drawing on an American influence.

Cccc’mon is tripping on a country vibe, and with the powerful driving vocals from Anna-Lena accompanied by guitars, you could see this track surley moving the crowds at festivals world-wide.

Crazy has to be my number one track on the album, the way the vocals rollfrom her tounge is both clever and full of style, really drawing on the band’s intentional inhability to be classified. They draw on so many influences, but all creating driving 
songs, powerfully capitavating and able to rock out a crowd or move an individual. 
Real Gone is a slower take on Winter’s sound and is a positive move to explore another aspect of their act but for me isn’t half as attractive as the rockier vibes. 
Pretender is another one of my favourites – who knows what influenced this song, other than the whole idea of being the first girl on the moon, but it makes for an interesting and really enjoyable track on the album, along with the following trac Run wich really bewitches the audience. This song focuses on being happy with yourself as you are, and her grainy and passionate vocals really bring AnnaLena’s story to life.


Overall this album is immense – a picturesque of Winter’s world full of momentum, brimming with style and passion and overloaded with talent.

LB

Maverick

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Winter
Ten Songs
East Central One Ltd. Win03

Frequent visitors to these shores from Sweden produce fine third album.

Having worked with acclaimed producer Malcolm Burn on their last release, Winter wanted to return to their roots and record an album back in Sweden . TEN SONGS is the result and every song is a real gem, none forgettable, all memorable, just about all songs have a hook and indeed this is quite a commercial release that would fit in nicely with Radio Two play lists quite easily.

All songs are written by lead singer and guitarist Anna-Lena Winter apart from Shadow On The Wall a co write with band member Hakan Svensson, the band produced and arranged the album themselves, losing nothing from not having a top producer in charge. The opening track Faith is a slow rocking ballad, a tale of how the world has changed for the worse, but could be better if we just have faith.

Anna’s vocal delivery has been compared favourably with Lucinda Williams and this shows up well on tracks such as Out Of Sight and Sweet Goodbye, (now released as a single) The rhythm section of Abbe Abrahamsson on drums and bassist Johan Stromberg hold the beat throughout and never put a foot wrong, a joy to listen to. Personal favourite for me is the beautiful Love In Disguise a song about a couple still together long after the love has left, this is a real classic and I could see Terry Wogan or Jeremy Vine playing this on one of their shows during the day, not hidden away in the grave yard shift, very commercial. Guitarist Hakan Svensson is a superb player and seems to play in a very relaxed way, listen to him on tracks such as Carry Me and Artificial Love to see what I mean, switching from acoustic to Z Z Top style lead on the latter.

At just over 38 minutes long it’s not the longest album in the world, but what you get is quality before quantity I would rather listen to ten good songs than a longer release with the all too often collection of dull tracks that you end up just skipping. Umbrella Bar strays close to good old British pub rock territory and features the only additional musician Ulf Stenberg on keyboards. The album closes with The Rage a truly emotional song about the terrible events of the Tsunami disaster that will pull at your heart strings and is sung with Anna showing real emotion and this really comes across well, very genuine. The album was recorded in an old Swedish mission house called Rackeby Chapel, chosen for superb acoustics and this gives the cd a very live feel. I really cannot fault this release and therefore give it the full five stars and it is certainly in my top five for 2007, highly recommended.

JHS