Ane Brun intrigues with the adventurous pop of I Thought We Were the Same

Brun’s sound has been shrouding itself in electronic textures and beats for a while now. With I Thought We Were the Same, her first album in 6 years, this evolution blossoms into a panoply of different styles, from atmospheric art-pop to dubstep. And even if the songwriting occasionally plays second fiddle to the production, there’s still plenty here to savour.

Take “Two in This Story”, which opens a trilogy of narrative tracks at the centre of the album, and explores the disorientation of betrayed trust through questioning vocals over a soft '80s-affected backing. The folksy warble of Brun’s earlier music is transformed here into a swelling operatic plaint, a full-bodied delivery that’s heavily reminiscent of Annie Lennox. And, like Lennox, Brun manages to tread the delicate balance between the comfort of melodrama and the embarrassment of mawkishness.

The track fits within an intriguing seam of theatrical ballads running through the record, from opener “Hold Me” to “In These Waters”, which could have been written by Phil Collins (and I honestly mean that as a compliment). Elsewhere the songs are darker and weirder. As with “Eat the Fruit”, a collaboration with Röyksopp whose menacing synths and nail-drumming beats drive irresistibly towards climax.

That delicate centre doesn’t always hold, though, particularly when the slick production retreats and Brun’s voice is pushed to the foreground. It’s not that her vocals don’t sound beautiful – they’re often quite haunting – but there’s a blandness to many of the lyrics on this album, and drawing attention to what’s actually being sung makes those flaws hard to ignore.

“Reevaluating You” is the most obvious example of this, closing with a spoken-word section that’s simply Brun saying things like “The opposite of trust is anxiety: the fear that closes us off from others, even from ourselves” over swirling organ chords; platitudes like that taste like lint in the mouth. the transition to the delightfully weird dubstep beats of “Can We Go Back” is a welcome one.

It's moments like this that leave parts of I Thought We Were the Same sounding frustratingly unfinished, coming across more as textural sketches than as fully realised songs. At its best, the album represents another exciting step forward for the Norwegian singer/songwriter; on songs like “Lean into the Wind” and “Reevaluating You”, though, the lyrics and melodies stand starkly exposed to listeners who can enjoy this style of production on any number of better-written records.

Ane Brun can write wonderful songs. She’s proven this time and again over her two-decade career, and she proves it here with “Shock Treatment”, a candid and highly enjoyable character study hidden away at the 36-minute mark. If she combines those skills with this diversity of sound on her next album, she’ll be onto a winner.