Alma: Time Machine review – bangers out, tender confessionals in | Pop and rock

When Finnish singer-songwriter Alma-Sofia Miettinen, AKA Alma, broke through in 2017, it was with a club-ready, escapist energy. Her hit single, Chasing Highs, layered a building synth motif and thumping bassline with an earworming refrain that caught the attention of Charli XCX and Swedish super-producer Max Martin. 2020’s debut album, Have U Seen Her?, continued largely in the same vein, but follow-up Time Machine now puts the heady pop bangers aside in favour of introspective songwriting that produces uneven results.

Working with one of Martin’s in-house producers, Elvira Anderfjärd, Miettinen channels the Swedish pop influence on the sprightly Abba-style key change of Tell Mama and on the ascending string lines of Summer Really Hurt Us. The tender confessionals come, meanwhile, on the piano ballad Hey Mom, Hey Dad, where Miettinen addresses the pressures of maintaining a happy family, while I Forgive Me pits her self-love against the absolution of others. It shows admirable maturity for the 27-year-old, but while her lyrics might be more nuanced, the music becomes homogeneous without the danceable thump of her earlier work. Time Machine is the record of an artist searching for greater meaning but at the cost of fun.

When Finnish singer-songwriter Alma-Sofia Miettinen, AKA Alma, broke through in 2017, it was with a club-ready, escapist energy. Her hit single, Chasing Highs, layered a building synth motif and thumping bassline with an earworming refrain that caught the attention of Charli XCX and Swedish super-producer Max Martin. 2020’s debut album, Have U Seen Her?, continued largely in the same vein, but follow-up Time Machine now puts the heady pop bangers aside in favour of introspective songwriting that produces uneven results.

Working with one of Martin’s in-house producers, Elvira Anderfjärd, Miettinen channels the Swedish pop influence on the sprightly Abba-style key change of Tell Mama and on the ascending string lines of Summer Really Hurt Us. The tender confessionals come, meanwhile, on the piano ballad Hey Mom, Hey Dad, where Miettinen addresses the pressures of maintaining a happy family, while I Forgive Me pits her self-love against the absolution of others. It shows admirable maturity for the 27-year-old, but while her lyrics might be more nuanced, the music becomes homogeneous without the danceable thump of her earlier work. Time Machine is the record of an artist searching for greater meaning but at the cost of fun.