aaamusic | On 14, May 2012

This album features a mixture of electro synth and acoustic pop from Finland, and proves to be a fairly pleasant surprise. Sansa is a young female artist and this is her third album. Filled with a nice mix of contrasting soundscapes and decent songwriting, it just about gets away with some dodgy lyrics and a lack of musical breadth or originality.
The two different styles that dominate the album are clearly marked out by the opening two tracks. Waiting For The Sky is a good opener – distinctive harmonies, well-balanced and contrasted electro textures, and catchy melodic lines effectively rendered by Sansa’s attractive vocal style. There’s then a switch to a simpler, more acoustic idiom for ballad Black Brick Wall, which is familiar sounding but worthwhile thanks to some polished songwriting and restrained production.
Bizarrely, the next track is a cover of the really awful Sabrina track Boys, which is memorable mainly for the video where Sabrina frolics about in a swimming pool about with her ample cleavage spilling out everywhere due to a remarkably inadequate bikini. What quite possessed Sansa to re-imagine this cheesy pop bilge as a slow and dreamy ballad is not entirely clear, but the memory of the original is too clear in my head for me to take the exercise seriously. We’re back on more familiar territory with Faults In My Armour, a very standard and generic acoustic pop song, replete with cheesy, supposedly self-empowering psycho-babble lyrics: “Faults in my armour make me whole.” Urgh!
The realms of electro synth are returned to in Black and White, a decent attempt at a Moby-esque dreamy number. However, it needs a lot more imagination and atmosphere in terms of its use of textures and instrumental effects. Rainbow Child is a pleasant enough, but transient little song, apt considering the title. My favourite track on the album is Gone To My Head, a Garbage-esque slinky track that is notable for its use of beguiling chromaticism and pervasive contrasting synth textures, allowing Sansa’s stealthy vocals to really come into their own. As is always the way, its followed by my least favourite song, the rather dull, folky title track Savior. The Night, and Can’t Keep My Eyes Off You follow in the same vein of unspectacular but competent pop. By contrast, Know Too Well heads into more unusual territory, with gradually unravelling chromatic harmonies and melodies, richly complemented by an acoustic guitar accompaniment consisting of lulling arpeggios. Is It You? provides a low-key and slightly forgettable ending.
It’s not perfect and there’s nothing here which will permanently engrave a place in your memory – with the possible exception of the cover of Sabrina’s Boys – but Savior certainly has enough contrasting, decent songs to make for an enjoyable listen, and it’s a cut above the average pop fare foisted upon the public at the moment.

★★★★★

Rupert Uzzell