THE THIRD album from Norwegian musician, novelist and artist Jenny Hval is a deeply personal, fantastical pop record in the mould of fellow Scandi singer-songwriters Bjork and Frida Hyvonen.

The songs are “dreams of an old science-fiction movie where gospel choirgirls are punk and run the world with autoerotic impulse,” says the PR blurb and they’re certainly a strange and slightly unhinged affair, though her lyrical commentary on contemporary Western life highlights more earthly concerns than this quote suggests.

Updating Subterranean Homesick Blues, Hval mockingly sings about “Fighting for visibility in your market” and “shaving in all the right places” on Take Care Of Yourself.

Elsewhere The Battle is Over has more lashings of sarcasm, Hval intoning: “Feminism is over, and socialism is over, so I can consume what I want now.”

An eccentric triumph.