Sondre Lerche does not fit into my stereotypes of a Norwegian musician. He does not play death or black metal. He does not kill his fellow bandmates. Nor has he ever (at least to this reviewer’s knowledge) burned down a church in the names of Satan and rock and roll. And until now, it’s never mattered: Lerche’s prior releases, Faces Down and Two Way Monologue, were artful pop records which cemented the then-teenager as a musical phenom. Those albums found the right mixture of Lerche’s natural sweetness and an aura of loneliness which could keep any listener involved and provoked. But on his latest record, the vocal jazz-inspired Duper Sessions, this balance has been upset.

Duper Sessions is indeed more jazz-influenced than Faces Down or Two-Way Monologue, but at the same time, it’s not enough pure jazz. Lerche’s vocals may be whipped cream smooth as always, but he just doesn’t sell it. Instead, he sounds more like a children’s musician making a stab at a crooner’s album. No one will want to smoke cigarettes, snap their fingers, or drink a glass of wine to this record … but they might want to jump on a trampoline to tracks such as “Everyone’s Rooting For You,” “The Curse of Being in Love,” or his cover of Elvis Costello’s “Human Hands”. Honestly, for this reviewer, “Human Hands” is the most inexcusable track on the album. An entirely antithetical version of one of the great masterpieces from Costello’s Imperial Bedroom, it takes a song which describes a man totally at a loss as to how to express his emotions and turns it into a bouncy playground tune which does little to make the listener want to listen to it again, let alone remember it even existed.

Lerche does redeem himself with the lovely “(You Knocked Me) Off My Feet” and “You Sure Look Swell,” both of which sound as if they fell out of a beautiful old black and white film. In fact, most of the second half of Duper Sessions is much more palatable (and less bouncy) than its beginning. All in all, however, this album will most likely not appeal to many on the first listen; the aforementioned children’s music touches can be very off putting to those who adored Lerche’s first two records for something other than their naive sweetness. Yet Duper Sessions may very well be important for the rest of young Lerche’s career. It could add a layer of texture to his pop music which will help restore the balance between sweet and saccharine. And while this set may not be as exciting as an album from Sondre Lerche about setting a church on fire, it at least shows an artist willing to step outside of his usual sound.

Reviewed by Megan Giddings