"Un-American Woman" is the first taste of Dinner's (LA-based Danish singer-songwriter Anders Rhedin) sophomore album New Work, which will be released on September 8th. As one might expect from the Scandinavian transplant, the new album (which was recorded with a swath of American collaborators) aims to reconcile his European identity with his love for American music. The lead single thus playfully blends sonic elements from European and American pop music traditions as Rhedin expresses some inconclusive ambivalence about his encounters with American women:
"Un-American Woman' is a song I wrote just before I stopped going out, just before I stopped sleeping around with women. The song seems to be about disillusionment and a fear of being stuck in a certain lifestyle. But it also touches upon the potential transformational aspects of suffering (or ‘Duhkha’ as the Buddhists say). Nothing’s black or white, good or bad. There is just life force moving. A constant movement. 'The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom,’ in the words of Blake. I lifted that line for the song, of course.”
Will Scott, ad hoc
The song begins with some twee sonic markers, but Rhedin's deep baritone and unique vocal style evoke the gravity and seriousness one might associate with Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Rhedin's Danish accent, which was impossible to ignore on Psychic Lovers (2016), is relatively Americanized on the track. This makes the statements 'You say you look like an American woman/ That’s alright/ You walk and talk like an American girl/ You walk and talk like an American' avoid coming across as byproducts of culture shock, but as potentially profound musings on American feminine ideals. The sparkly '80s synth pop influences contrast with his stoic vocal delivery, which adds to the mystery and intrigue of opaque statements like 'You set a trap to set us free/ You say it's light but I can't see' and 'And we forgot it all somehow but that's how I'll remember you'.
By refusing to condense his message into a critique or lament, Rhedin lingers ambiguously in the grayness of it all. There are hints of despair, but also rays of optimism. The first official music video (which features ballet dancers in Vegas hotel rooms and car parks) and its alternate version further hint at the indeterminacy of it all.
