Anna of the North - Girl In A Bottle (Album Review)
Tuesday, 27 January 2026
Written by Jeremy Blackmore
Photo: William Spooner
‘Girl In A Bottle’, the fourth studio album from Norwegian singer-songwriter Anna Lotterud under her Anna Of The North alias, charts a break-up amid the euphoria of ‘80s synth-pop. Despite the dance grooves, the record is underpinned by Lotterud’s signature sadness and late-night nostalgia for a love lost.
Essentially a mini album clocking in at just under 23 minutes, ‘Girl In A Bottle’ features just six full-length songs and two shorter ambient pieces, but packs an emotional punch despite its short running time.
Bouncy opening track Since You picks over the end of a relationship on the streets of New York, the sparkling production masking the heartache.
It’s followed by the evocative ambience of I’m Getting Lonely At Night, Lotterud’s effect-laden vocal floating above the sounds of the city streets with distant alarms and car horns.
On Call Me, she wonders whether, if she turned back time, her partner would meet with her “half of the way back then”, before imploring them to call, her unanswered requests echoing back in time.
Waiting For Love is the big synth-pop anthem, a song Lotterud says had been in her demo folder for way too long, her “favourite little indie-pop song for a while”. Chronicling the time someone broke her heart as they came into her life, love-bombed her, and left as quickly as they entered, it erupts into a joyous chorus that captures the rush of new love, while lamenting how unfair it has been ripped away.
Things shift down a gear on the meditative No One Knows You Better, its bed of harmonies, synths and beats forming an honest, mature reflection on a failing relationship. Where Waiting For Love was anthemic, the brief ambient piece Friday And Saturday, which seems to continue the same lyrical theme, finds her at her most raw and exposed.
Lyrically, the album ends unresolved. The sense of loss at the end of a relationship remains and the forlorn hope it can still be rekindled. Give Me Your Love Back closes the album in shimmering pop fashion as we await the second instalment, ‘Girl In A Bottle: Please Recycle’ later this year.
Anna of the North Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Thu February 05 2026 - LONDON Islington Assembly Hall
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