SKAAR - Mad Woman (2023) Hi-Res

Rising Norwegian pop talent SKAAR has today released her new album ‘Mad Woman’. ‘Mad Woman’ follows the release of ‘Mad Woman Pt 1’, which was released earlier this year. While Pt 1 saw the Norwegian artist traversing messy, complicated and heavy emotions, the album signifies her coming out the other end, accepting the cyclicality of life and knowing that the world is waiting on the other side.

From the swirling intro of ‘Obscene’, you’re instantly drawn into SKAAR’s captivating narrative. Finding protection and solace in pop music, the album signifies SKAAR reclaiming control. The soaring pop euphoria of ‘Something Like This’ details SKAAR’s first therapy session and the feeling of finally being heard, which can almost be read as a love song. Meanwhile, the sheer acceptance of ‘Out Of My Hands’ sees her fully let go, singing “close my eyes and listen to the waves / because it’s out of my hands”. There are glimmers of vulnerability that creep in, with the nocturnal, piano-driven ‘DNA’ drawing on the final conversation with a toxic partner, cutting the drawstrings and taking back control on where she goes from here, meanwhile ‘What Are U Scared Of?’ is just SKAAR and murmurs of an acoustic guitar.

Through the entire creation of this album, SKAAR has never stopped chasing silver linings. She wants her experiences on this album to be a source of comfort, to create a sense of closeness and sisterhood that she experienced with her own friends as she was writing it. The overall message of the album is simple – you can’t let things go if you don’t accept that they’ve happened.

For three years, Norwegian singer-songwriter SKAAR has been bound in a straitjacket, gagged by self-doubt and a mistrust of her own memory. ‘Mad Woman’ is a story of hard-won reclamation, a scream for survival. Pushing the parameters of what pop music is capable of, the album’s hooks and highs offered much-needed sweetness to the bitter realities she forced herself to confront, unravelling her long-avoided trauma.