Hummingbird, Go! is a vibrant entertaining hotchpotch that leaves me slightly baffled as to how to go about reviewing and/or categorising it. Some kind of shape shifting cross between a D.I.Y. Feist, a lone female Ting Ting, and the rounded pipes of Doris Day. Yes, Doris Day. With a healthy measure of Scandinavian folk-pop sensibility thrown in. Based on a quick perusal of four year old previous outing Shine, I was expecting, without much anticipation, another rather innocuous collection of female soft-rock à la Cheryl Crow. It could hardly be more different and indeed for some time I hesitated to believe that my Googling wasn't delivering up two completely different people in its result list.

Singer-songwriter/violinist Theresa Andersson relocated to New Orleans from her native Sweden in 1990 as an eighteen year old with fellow musician Anders Osborne - her boyfriend of the time. Since then she has made a living working with others on the New Orleans scene (e.g. The Radiators) and released three solo albums. To her credit (in my eyes) she once performed a cover of The Faces' 'Ooh La La', but things got much more interesting when she accidentally hooked up with producer and fellow Gotlander Tobias Froberg - who has production credits with Peter Morén of Peter Bjorn and John fame. Already thinking about a radical change to a less traditional approach to her craft and with a clutch of demos made solo in her kitchen, this infusion of Scandinavian indie pop was just the support required to continue with her unconventional project. He provides lyrics for five tracks, as does poet Jessica Faust, which therefore leaves Andersson providing the musical setting and performing but loosing brownie points when I found this out late on, which is a shame.

On the demos the reverb of the kitchen itself was such a feature that the decision was made to actually record almost alone at home in the same way with the same querky variety of 'instruments' - including rubbed rims of glasses (the old party trick) and a Heath Robinson vibraphone constructed from partially-filled bottles. A live performance for Andersson is also a one woman band - it's like watching a plate spinning act as she keeps the painstakingly mapped out arrangements flowing whilst darting between loop pedals and various effects.

The energetic 'Na Na Na' fizzes out of the speakers, with Andersson's lead vocal progressing into a soaring joyous climax. There's a touch of the manic about her surrender to the music at the end. That mood is rather deflated by a short floating soundscape piece reflecting on the flowers of her garden, but then the handclap-laden charm of 'Birds Fly Away' picks up the pace again, with what sounds like kitchen utensil percussion over a thumping beat and airy skipping vocals. 'Hi Low' follows a multi-tracked do-wop interlude and continues the early 60s pink-cardiganed girl group theme with a lilting tune over Caribbean guitar. Just when you think that you're getting a 'predictably kooky' handle on the first few tracks, everything changes with the sweeping majesty of 'Innan Du Gar' - a duet with Norwegian Ane Brun and featuring dulcimer and weeping mandolin. It's like a meeting between a grand cinematic score and a folksy Eurovision entry ballad, and in this case something about the intimate tone means that results in a two thumbs up.

The instrumental title track is a short multi-layered mix with the dominating sound being the melodic wailing of angels - as in the credits music for the original Star Trek series. 'Japanese Art' has the Ting-Tings moment, featuring a violin hoe-down middle in the raucous marching-band-in-a-rush-to-get-home rhythm, and apparently Doris Day on vocals. Or maybe that's just me. Things get more conventional towards the end of the album. 'The Waltz' is a sultry jazzy semi-lullaby, or perhaps song of seduction, of acoustic guitar and violin (with Doris again); whilst 'God's Highway' features Froberg in a country tinged folk song that sounds all the more pure and refreshing somehow because there is none of the trickery that has gone before. He wrote the tune too. It's a time just to enjoy Andersson's voice. 'Locusts Are Gossiping' is an example of how each comparatively simple song has a complexity in the construction of the overall texture. It's not especially memorable, but is distinctive on the album for its funky acoustic beat. The moody desperation of separation and solitude haunt 'Minor Changes', as the album finishes in a rich orchestral blanket pierced by the eerie sounds of a bowed saw.

Watch Theresa Andersson perform 'Na Na Na' at home below. Here it sounds a bit muted compared to the sparkle of the album track, and after the novelty of the spectacle has worn off, in live performance I do much prefer a regular band to this kind of thing. The artist always seems distracted and that saps the atmosphere. But back to this album. A veritable smörgåsbord of something for everyone; from the breezy and throwaway to the solemn and deep; and inventive throughout, which makes it a thoroughly refreshing experience time after time. Everything but the kitchen sink. 78%

Something for the foot fetishish then. TLOBF gives you what you want.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=n2eD4GcLohE[/youtube]Links Theresa Andersson [official site (under construction)] [myspace]