Stina Nordenstam - People Are Strange (Warner Bros) Never has an album title testified so much about its content. Some people, especially glitzy showbusiness types, hail from a peculiar breed that believes their self-professed talent entitles them to take enormous liberties.
Stina Nordenstam might not have the fame and fortune to wallow in excesses, but her achievements - three best-selling albums in Europe - have hypnotised her into producing People Are Strange, a self-indulgent mess of cover versions. Nordenstam experiments with and attempts witty piano-and-me versions - supplemented by an annoying whine perhaps deemed an alternative vocal form.
But try playing it by random on first listen, and it is probable that you won't recognise which song is which: what sounds like Rod Stewart's Sailing to Nordenstam's ears could easily be mistaken for her ambitious cover of the Doors' People Are Strange. Leonard Cohen could well be upset by the spiritless rendition of I Came So Far From Beauty, and Prince may be weeping with regret in allowing a cover of Purple Rain. When you are strange, Jim Morrison wrote, no one remembers your name. When you make a strangely bad album, though, it scars. Nordenstam may disown this when the autobiography comes around.