Album Review: Heavy Glory by Elias Rønnenfelt

Despite having released five studio albums and an outtakes collection with his main band (Iceage), two albums with his main 'side-project' Marching Church, and a handful of EPs and collaborative albums since he first emerged from Copenhagen as a fresh-faced 18-year-old back in 2011, Rønnenfelt has seemingly found the energy to get around to releasing his debut solo album, Heavy Glory. The biggest surprise of the whole thing is that Rønnenfelt appears, at least for most of the album, to be a changed man: he sounds clear, sincere, and even optimistic despite making a career out of being densely literary, theatrical and even gleefully nihilistic. The sincerity begins on gorgeous opener "Like Lovers Do", which showcases his rich, restrained voice against the backdrop of some insistently strummed acoustic guitar.

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Having spent the greater part of two decades fronting restless Danish rockers Iceage, that Elias Rønnenfelt would refuse to tie himself down to one sound on this solo debut is not surprising. But there was somehow always a cohesiveness to his band's output that doesn't quite pan out through 'Heavy Glory'. It's almost as if the record has been pieced together from three parts: first, a series of demos (which may indeed fit with the record having begun its life during the singer's series of low-key fan-booked gigs throughout 2020); second, a handful of tracks that posit Elias as a scratchy, troubadour Mick Jagger (a look which suits him completely, pun intended); and third, a pair of gorgeously-recorded and perfectly delivered cover versions (Spacemen 3's 'Walking With Jesus', retitled 'Sound of Confusion', and Townes van Zandt's 'No Place To Fall').

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