No Offending Borders is the latest album from Norwegian singer-songwriter Torgeir Waldemar and it’s a lovely, chilled-out listen that follows on nicely from his 2014 self-titled debut.
The softness and all-round gentleness of Waldemar’s sound and approach on this genre is nice to hear, and No Offending Borders works well as both background music and as a more involved listen, depending on how closely you want to look at the music as there’s a few cool little intricate elements to the album that don’t sound immediately apparent on the surface.
There’s some really nice inclusions on the piece, such as the funky sounding Among The Low which features a catchy vocal line combined with a more rockier approach, and later track Souls On A String is a more acoustic folksy number that harks back to his previous release a little with the musical direction taken.
However, despite how nice and accessible the music sounds, it feels like there’s something missing and there’s nothing groundbreaking about the piece. It’s a solid album, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been done already by countless other singer-songwriters out there and it’s a shame because there’s definitely something special lurking underneath the surface. Waldemar’s potential just hasn’t quite been reached yet – but maybe that’s something for album number three!
7/10
