Silver Lining - Four Little Songs EP (2025) Hi-Res

This is a Norwegian indie folk quartet celebrating their 10th anniversary with a 4-song EP simply titled Four Little Songs (Drops October 3/Die With Your Boots On Records/Jansen Records/Black Pop/PEKULA). This is the first time the group has recorded what they often do during their live concerts: cover songs. There are two Gillian Welch tunes, a Jason Isbell song, & a composition by Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman. Produced by Silver Lining & Øyvind Blomsrøm.

I reviewed this band in 2022 & the Oslo-based group is still a wonderful harmony-driven unit. I’m already assuming this could’ve been a more embellished effort than a mere 4 songs since the musicians enjoy performing cover songs. But there are no disappointments here. The opening Gillian Welch cover song “One Little Song” is a blend of Abba without the sugar, a little Roches without the eccentric quirky touch & maybe a pinch of folky flavor ala the Canada’s McGarrigle Sisters. A mix of these types of voices is no mean feat. These are all excellent artists & to enable your own current to flow that smoothly is commendable.

What makes these songs buzz is their cover precision. Silver Lining doesn’t actually Americanize the songs & the “arrangements” don’t have a Euro-feeling. I guess you could say it has a Scandinavian breeze that blows through the melody. No accents or anything foreign intrude on their framework. The freshness & clarity are clearly from a different recipe than the standard American rural artists. It makes the songs stand out renewed. The Chinese may have invented pasta, but it was the Italians who put the meat & tomato sauce on it, sort of thing.