The last time we encountered Keren Ann Ziedel, the Dutch-Israeli, Paris-and New York-based artist, she looked every bit the cosmopolitan singer-songwriter, her long flowing hair matching her ethereal sound. On the cover of her new album, however, she appears with her hair in a severe bob and her hand wrapped round a handgun. The lyrics return again and again to themes of violence, while the music has a little more zest and oomph, particularly on My Name Is Trouble and the poppy Sugar Mama. Blood on My Hands offers a scene of carnage when a singer turns on her fans (“There was blood on my microphone/There was blood on my fans/There was blood in my whiskey/Now there’s blood on my hands”).
All the Beautiful Girls takes us into more familiar Keren Ann territory — a restrained mix of Leonard Cohen and something Lou Reed might have written for Nico to sing, this tale of a painter’s wife assessing the beautiful girls who visit her husband again ends in (imagined) violence. The penultimate track, Strange Weather, is the finest moment, as Keren Ann’s typically flat delivery contrasts with an extraordinary climax of strings and electronics. By contrast, the title track simply and matter-of-factly counts us down through a list (“79 Star Trek episodes/78 revolutions per minute/77 developing nations/76 trombones”) that ends — spoiler alert! — with “one God”. Keren Ann has changed, but she remains unlike anyone else out there.