Emiliana Torrini – Miss Flower

When Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini came across a box of mysterious letters addressed to her friend’s mother, Geraldine Flower, she was completely entranced. After having known Miss Flower on a personal level before and after her death, diving into these heavily romantic, adventurous and poetic pieces gave Torrini a new perspective regarding the woman she once knew. This June, Torrini brought Geraldine Flower’s story to life with a brand new concept album titled Miss Flower.

According to Torrini, each song corresponds with its own letter, start to finish, and listeners follow along as her delicate, sensual vocals describe who Miss Flower once was. Each song swings and sways through many varying genres, first beginning with Black Water. Sneaky, trip-hop sounds and basslines introduce the world of Geraldine Flower both in sound and word. Torrini sings of clandestine interactions, lust and desire, making for an intriguing starting point within the Miss Flower universe.

Each letter has a different writer or subject, and Lady K, the second track off the album, adds a new point of view into the mix. The speaker in Lady K goes into more specifics regarding infidelity and drama, and the production complements it well. It is almost as though Torrini took words directly from this particular letter and matched the emotions within it to the appropriate sound. Waterhole takes a similar approach, especially considering the use of crickets and marimbas that enhance the extended metaphor.

Miss Flower’s dance with duplicity lines the entirety of this record, but Dreamers is a delightful exception. In a style reminiscent of noughties-era Norah Jones, Torrini shows an interesting dichotomy of love and lust through production. Where lust thus far has been uneasy, slightly aggressive or eerie, love has been stripped back, simple and light. Miss Flower plays directly after Dreamers and highlights this contrast.

Black Lion Lane switches genres entirely. Torrini has played with electronic-pop, trip-hop and indie pop until this point, but Black Lion Lane is almost out of left field with its indie rock, surfer-esque guitar style. The saucy beats return directly after, however, with the nearly latin pop track Let’s Keep Dancing.

Love Poem returns to electronic-pop and is unsettling, yet romantic due to its more simple nature, almost as though Torrini is creating a foggy haze akin to that of a delusional relationship. The Golden Thread and A Dream Through the Floorboards work in unison to close Miss Flower’s story. The delicate piano and same whisper-like vocals still portray secretiveness, doubt, lust, love and desire. Although the letters are quite literally tucked back underneath the floorboards in the final track, it still feels as though there is much more to Miss Flower than this glimpse into her life has shown.

Overall, while each song is essentially of a different genre and tells a completely different tale, this ten-track project is still somehow cohesive. Emiliana Torrini has produced a niche conceptual album to be proud of with Miss Flower.

Taryn Crowley

Miss Flower is released on 21^st June 2024. For further information or to order the album visit Emiliana Torrini’s website here.

Watch the video for the single Brick Lion Lane here: