Track Listing

1. When Debbie's Back From Texas
2. Viewed From The Spire
3. Crime
4. Fireworks
5. Proposal
6. Little Star
7. Hopefully Yours
8. Murder in Mairyland Park
9. I See You Again
10. Something Nice
11. And She Closed Her Eyes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10401 in Music
• Released on: 1994-04-18
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

an absolute gem , one of the top 5 albums of the 90s if not all time
I first heard about Stina from mtv in the nieties when LittleStar came out as a single and fell in love with how delicate and unique her voice is, this album is for me a truly beatiful experience, an album that just gets better and better over time.
An album of sheer magic and feels very seaside, sounds of the tide and seagulls, beautiful dreamy melodies, and for me this is the album I love to listen to on my own at night and have a nice glass of wine and totally relax and forget about the madness that is the world. It sounds like heaven coming through your speakers, please make sure you listen through good quality hifi and not a cheap system and it will definately pay off, the production is wonderful.
I always turn to this and her first album, and found this style to suit her the best, I also liked the track she did with Vangelis. I wasnt overkeen on Dynamite I prefer her vocal on a dreamy chillout melody, and just couldnt get along with such harshness, so this album for me was always Stina at her best, I need to check out her newer stuff though and hope there is more of the magic found here.

If you have not heard her voice before I suppose you will either adore it or hate it, but oh,what music! Truly Exceptional
One album I would definately take on holiday or a desert island disc I absolutely adore her vocal uniqueness, so beautiful and tender, buy it and I promise you will not find better nightime escapism.

I am hopefully yours

Until Emiliana Torrini finally comes out with another album, one of the artists I will have to listen to is Stina Nordenstam.

And the Swedish singer's second album is a beautiful, delicate wisp that has aged incredibly well. "And She Closed Her Eyes" is filled with her fragile voice and hesitant trip-hop, as well as the wistful sounds of bittersweet breakups and endangered love.

"It takes you no time/You just follow the bridge/Indian summer evening/Let the shadows backslide" Nordenstam sings wistfully over cycling guitars, describing the feelings of one-third of a love triangle. "I'm a true believer/And no lover of starshine/I know where this is leading/This is my last chance..."

It continues with the ethereal, saxophone-edged "Viewed From the Spire," all about love that ends with death. And the album trickles into a series of similar songs -- catchy folkpop, ethereal little trippy ballads, the shimmering jazz-edged "Little Star," haunting ambient folk laced with sea-sounds, uneasy trip-hop. It ends with the heartbreaking title track -- and when the guitars end, there's only the sound of rain.

Most albums about broken hearts and broken love affairs are pretty angry -- the artists use them for catharsis when someone done them wrong. But "And She Closed Her Eyes" is a different kind of breakup album -- this is about the bittersweet pessimism of breaking up, the love that died, or the painful little heartache when you see your love with someone else. Trust me, I know.

That bittersweetness is printed all over these songs. Sure, a couple are about love-related deaths, but most are about goodbyes. And her delicate, simple lyrics sum up the feelings of goodbyes ("whatever made me glow, it's gone now/But I pretend I'm having it still") or the sorrow of what hasn't been said at all ("Little star/So you had to go/You must have wanted him to know... Poor little thing...").

And their beautiful fragility is only enhanced by Nordenstam's voice -- she has a sort of childlike, slightly creaky voice, though she does a gorgeous Latin chorus in "Little Star". And her music is a mix of gentle folk and dream-pop, with some soft synth woven in there -- the only jarring note is the saxophone, which sounds like something from a soap-opera commercial.

Regrets, lost love and love that has run its course -- that is "And She Closed Her Eyes," an exquisite little collection of trip-folk gems. But if you've lost at love recently, keep tissues near.

Where is the voice?
OK....so there I was reading all of those glowing recommendations.
I thought I would chance it and purchase the album which is now over 10 years old.
Ooooh dear,a BIG disappointment.
I have been unable to get beyond the thin shapeless voice, despite some of the excellent arrangements.
This is one of the few albums that I will not be listening to again.
Reader...listen before you buy.