Blood Bitch

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Blood Bitch
Studio album by
Jenny Hval
ReleasedSeptember 30, 2016
GenreExperimental pop[1]
Length36:26
LabelSacred Bones Records
ProducerJenny Hval & Lasse Marhaug
Jenny Hval chronology
Apocalypse, girl

(2015) 		Blood Bitch
(2016) 		The Practice of Love
(2019)
Singles from Blood Bitch
  1. "Female Vampire"
    Released: May 27, 2016
  2. "Conceptual Romance"
    Released: July 26, 2016
  3. "Period Piece"
    Released: September 15, 2016

Blood Bitch is the sixth studio album by Norwegian musician Jenny Hval, released on September 30, 2016 on Sacred Bones Records. Co-produced by Hval and Lasse Marhaug, the album was preceded by the singles, "Female Vampire", "Conceptual Romance" and "Period Piece".

Described as "an investigation of blood", Blood Bitch is a

exploitation films and Virginia Woolf.[3]

Writing and composition

During the writing process for Blood Bitch, Hval was influenced by

exploitation films: “I was amazed about how much taboo they could contain without moral compass, how much incest there could be.”[4] In a statement released upon the album's announcement, she elaborated: "Blood Bitch is a fictitious story, fed by characters and images from horror and exploitation films of the '70s. With that language, rather than smart, modern social commentary, I found I could tell a different story about myself and my own time: a poetic diary of modern transience and transcendence."[2]

Describing the album has her "most fictional and most personal album,"

lunar cycles, sticky choruses, and the smell of warm leaves and winter."[2]

Orlando, the vampiric character whom much of the album focuses upon, was influenced by the Virginia Woolf novel, Orlando: A Biography.[3] Hval elaborated: "[Woolf's] Orlando is a character that lives through several centuries. He starts out being a male growing up. At some point through history, he changes into a she. So it’s a coming of age story that is very fluid, traveling through time and gender. It’s a really lovely book and I think all of my albums are inspired by it in some way because it’s one of those things I read quite early on. It really influenced the way I think about art. For example: With this album, I didn’t intend to do anything in particular beyond beautiful songs when I started writing it. A horror theme and a vampire theme quickly came into it almost subconsciously. When it was all finished, I realized it was just Orlando."[3]

Hval has also described novelist Chris Kraus as "someone I’ve just read and reread constantly and who’s been a really huge [...] inspiration for me."[5] The track Conceptual Romance's references Kraus' I Love Dick and, like the novel, looks at the intersection of feminism and infatuation.[6]

Recording

Hval co-produced the album with Norwegian

Apocalypse, girl. Regarding his initial scepticism over working alongside Hval, he noted: "I come from the noise, underground, contemporary, and improvised music [scenes], and I had no experience making pop music. It didn’t make sense to ask me to produce to a pop album. [But Jenny’s] a very smart person, and she obviously saw something in me that I didn’t realize that I had."[4] On working with Marhaug, Hval noted, "Lasse relates to sound in an abstract way. That’s a better way to look at it than as individual songs because many times you end up with an illusion that can’t be broken. Looking at the album as a whole and then putting holes in it means you have these bits of reality peaking through. I love those moments."[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Consequence of Sound
B+[11]
Drowned in Sound9/10[12]
The Irish Times[13]
Mojo[14]
The Observer[15]
Pitchfork8.3/10[16]
Record Collector[17]
Slant Magazine[18]
Uncut8/10[19]

Blood Bitch received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84 based on 23 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[9]

Writing for AllMusic, Heather Phares praised Hval's dedication to the album's themes, alongside its overall aesthetic and unexpected pop-based songwriting: "a bewitching album from an artist at the peak of her powers."[10]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank Ref.
Consequence of Sound
 		Top 50 Albums of 2016 2016
21
[20]
FACTmag 50 Best Albums of the Year 2016 2016
1
[21]
The Guardian The Best Albums of 2016 2016
26
[22]
The Independent Best Albums of 2016 2016
4
[23]
Paste The 50 Best Albums of 2016 2016
42
[24]
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2016 2016
23
[25]
Pitchfork The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2016 2016 —
[26]
The Quietus Albums of the Year 2016 2016
10
[27]
Rough Trade Albums of the Year 2016
75
[28]
Stereogum The 50 Best Albums of 2016 2016
38
[29]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jenny Hval except for tracks 3 and 8, co-written by Lasse Marhaug

No.TitleLength
1."Ritual Awakening"1:42
2."Female Vampire"3:37
3."In the Red"2:21
4."Conceptual Romance"4:32
5."Untamed Region"4:51
6."The Great Undressing"4:00
7."Period Piece"2:41
8."The Plague"5:57
9."Secret Touch"4:39
10."Lorna"2:06

Personnel

  • Jenny Hval – vocals, background vocals, composer, arranger, instruments, production, programming (all tracks), concept
  • Lasse Marhaug – art direction, composer (tracks 3 & 8), mixing, production (all tracks)
  • Marcus Schmickler – mastering

References

  1. ^ Fox, Killian (9 October 2016). "Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch review – intriguing experimental pop". The Observer. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  2. ^
    Pitchfork
    . Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Huff, Rob (28 September 2016). "Bleeding out with Jenny Hval" (Interview). Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  4. ^ a b Brodsky, Rachel (1 September 2016). "Jenny Hval's Art of Failure". Spin. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  5. ^ "Interview with Jenny Hval". The White Review. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  6. ^ Snapes, Laura (2016-10-03). "Songs Cycles: Jenny Hval On The Importance Of Uncertainty". NPR. Retrieved 2021-12-05.
  7. ^ Wright, Danny (30 September 2016). "Jenny Hval // Interview". London In Stereo. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Blood Bitch by Jenny Hval reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Reviews for Blood Bitch by Jenny Hval". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  10. ^ a b Phares, Heather. "Blood Bitch – Jenny Hval". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  11. Consequence of Sound
    . Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  12. ^ Adcock, Lee (29 September 2016). "Album Review: Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 31 December 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  13. ^ Clayton-Lea, Tony (22 September 2016). "Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch album review: a triumph of time-travelling vampires and menstruation". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  14. ^ Tyler, Kieron (October 2016). "Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch". Mojo (275): 98.
  15. ^ Fox, Killian (9 October 2016). "Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch review – intriguing experimental pop". The Observer. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  16. ^ Pelly, Jenn (4 October 2016). "Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch". Pitchfork. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  17. ^ Moores, JR (October 2016). "Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch". Record Collector (458). Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  18. ^ Cataldo, Jesse (18 September 2016). "Jenny Hval: Blood Bitch". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  19. ^ Wallace, Wyndham (5 October 2016). "Jenny Hval – Blood Bitch". Uncut. Archived from the original on 6 October 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  20. Consequence of Sound
    . November 28, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  21. ^ "FACTmag Albums of the Year 2016". FACTmag. December 13, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  22. ^ "The Best Albums of 2016: 40-31". The Guardian. November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  23. ^ "Best Albums of 2016". The Independent. November 30, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  24. ^ "The 50 Best Albums of 2016". Paste. November 30, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  25. ^ "The 50 Best Albums of 2016 - Page 3 | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  26. ^ "The 20 Best Experimental Albums of 2016". Pitchfork. December 9, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  27. ^ "The Quietus Albums of the Year 2016". The Quietus. December 6, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  28. ^ "Albums of the Year". Rough Trade. November 14, 2016. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
  29. ^ "The 50 Best Albums of 2016". Stereogum. December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
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