Molly Nilsson's version of synth pop clings tightly to a D.I.Y. approach: she records her albums by herself, runs her own record label, and has a rock-solid artistic vision that doesn't waver. She records quickly prolifically, releasing an album almost every year since 2008's These Things Take Time. Her insular, stately approach to synth pop is balanced by the swooping synth melodies and detached grace of her vocals. As she grew musically and personally, her sound opened up and became warmer, especially on 2015's landmark album Zenith. She also began to experiment more, as on 2022's politically minded, metal-influenced Extreme and 2024's genre-spanning ode to life in Los Angeles, Un-American Activities. Nilsson's musical career began when she moved from her native Sweden to Berlin and switched from wanting to be a visual artist to making music. Her first album, 2008's These Things Take Time, was released on CD-R with only 500 copies made. The next year she released another album, the nine-song Europa. Still working by herself, and relatively quickly, she released a record almost every year on her own Dark Skies Association label (Follow the Light in 2010, History in 2012, and Travels in 2013, the latter co-released with Night School). Along the way, her profile was boosted when she and John Maus recorded a version of "Hey Moon" from These Things Take Time for his 2011 album We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. Always fond of traveling, Nilsson took a step out of her comfort zone recording-wise by heading to Argentina for two months, where she made 2014's Solo Paraíso: The Summer Songs EP. The process of recording her next album proved to be a little more difficult. She scrapped a finished version after slowly realizing it wasn't quite the next step she wanted to take. In its place, she made the expansive Zenith, her most melodic, musically accomplished, and user-friendly album yet. It was released by Dark Skies Association and Night School in late 2015. Nilsson spent the next year touring the world, from Glasgow to Mexico, playing shows and absorbing new places and experiences. She used this broadened perspective on her seventh album, the musically expansive Imaginations. Working quickly as always, she returned with her most focused, brightest record to date. Concentrating on her vision of the future and its challenges, both external and internal, Twenty Twenty was released in late 2018. She spent much of the following two years working on her tenth album at home in Berlin. Adding punk guitars to the mix along with a healthy dose of empowering anger, Nilsson embraced the anthemic side of synth pop on 2022's Extreme. She released two songs recorded at the sessions for the album -- "Hard Feelings" and "Chario's Bride" -- as a single in early 2023 before turning to her next project. After scoring a prestigious grant from the Villa Aurora foundation, she was able to spend three months in early 2024 at the former house of Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger, two German writers who lived there in exile during and after WWII. While there, she wrote and recorded an album giving her take on life in Los Angeles, moving back to her usual blend of synth pop while also exploring piano ballads, '90s dance music, and Madonna-esque house music. Un-American Activities was released by Night School in July of 2024. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi

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Molly Nilsson

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