Agnes Obel returns with The Meaning Of Flowers, inspired by motherhood

Agnes Obel has become a mother for the first time, and that life changing experience forms the heart of her new studio album The Meaning Of Flowers. Pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood are for Obel not just personal milestones but profound processes of transformation and metamorphosis. Those are precisely the themes that inspired her to write twelve new songs, each one steeped in the reflection and contemplation that comes with bringing a new life into the world.

The intellectual groundwork Obel laid for this album is impressively wide ranging. She handed journalists who wanted to discuss the album a reading list spanning everything from the writings of Enheduanna, the earliest known female author in history whose work dates back to the twenty third century BC, to philosophical texts by Hannah Arendt and contemporary philosopher Emanuele Coccia. That body of thought on connectedness, creation and the origins of life has clearly found its way into the music, though a thorough reading of those works is by no means required to appreciate the album.

The Meaning Of Flowers runs twelve tracks and sounds unmistakably like Obel. In that sense it is a natural continuation of earlier albums such as Aventine and Myopia. At the same time this record breathes more freely, feels lighter and carries less darkness in both its music and its titles. Listeners familiar with her previous work will still notice the characteristic melancholy running through it and her reflective tone remains very much present, but the overall feel is more open and spacious than before.

That lighter quality ties in seamlessly with the subject matter. Just as new life needs time to grow and come into bloom, this album also rewards repeated listening before it fully reveals itself. The Meaning Of Flowers does not give everything away at once; it is a record that pays off when you give it the time and space it deserves. For Dutch fans of Obel's atmospheric and literarily layered music, this is a welcome return from an artist who has managed to reinvent herself without abandoning her own sound.