Søren Huss has always been a sympathetic bloke. Even if Saybia didn't exactly invent the wheel, then for his charisma and his gezellig, beaver-like look that was lumberjacky when Fleet Foxes were still in junior high. Now take this likeable but somewhat soft and sensitive dude, split up his troublesome and increasingly drug-addicted band and have his wife fatally run over by a car, and you've got the recipe for suicide... Or you've got the recipe for one of the most impressive and heartfelt comebacks I've ever seen. And we see so many comebacks these days. Musical antiquities that dust off their boots for one last bash to get some money to pay the rent. Huss does appear quite juxtaposed to those when you listen to his comeback album, his solo debut Troen & Ingen. In fact, you just have to listen to a tune like 'Fra Tanke Til...' once to realize he means this dead seriously.
It's one of the hardest things in the world, to write a credible album about a love lost, without ending up being so pathetic and letting your feelings dominate the music so much, that no-one wants to listen to your harangue anyway. If you take Huss' past musical accomplishments into consideration, it's quite impressive how much he's upped his game here. I mean, it's no For Emma, Forever Ago, but it certainly is far from as dreadfully whiney as this kind of album can be. In fact, it's a pretty masterful balancing on the knife's edge, as he doesn't fall into neither the boring nor the pitiable category, although at points he is within striking distance of both.
Musically and lyrically, Huss draws subtle but clear references to top bananas of Danish lore such as Sebastian and C.V. Jørgensen. There's a bit of a careen toward the middle of the album, but the latter half contains the three absolute highlights of the album; the hopeful 'Jeg Finder Vej', the escapadic 'Et Hav Af Udstrakte Hænder' and the almost tear-jerkingly beautiful closer 'Tak For Dansen', which rounds off a powerful and crucial record.
