Laleh - Jag Är (Signerad)

Facts On the new album "Jag är," Laleh sees through the world - and through herself - in a completely new way.

She has always been associated with hope and faith in the future, but here she also explores her own hopelessness and darkness. We meet a new side of the artist, where she is honest about how heavy both hope and anxiety can feel. There is a spiritual awakening on this album, a dimension that was not there before. Laleh has stared into the struggle between good and evil. On the title track "Jag är," she chooses to believe in a creator: "I was created from the end to the beginning, born with a thought, something to do."

She likens humans to a seed - with an inherent plan - where "you are like a seed in the earth, it only needs water, time and the sun." In the ballad "Ett helt liv," she almost pleads: "Let the children grow in peace and become who they are!"

For the first time, she also sings openly about the darkness in a new way - about the anxiety that has haunted her like a storm since her debut album 20 years ago. In the new song "The Dark Side," she describes anxiety as a storm you have to wait out, while panic rushes over her and she sings calmly and composed, "I'm panicking." But on the song "Det blir ljust igen," written after a nightmare, she notes that she has been afraid for nearly her whole life: "But if I give in any more, then I'll be nothing."

In a way, Laleh has never been so vulnerable - or so honest. We get to see all sides: just like on the cover, where half of the face is in darkness and the other half in light. "Jag är" is a work that took three years to create. And now she is ready to show who she is.

Gatefold. 20-page booklet. Black/white marbled vinyl.