REAL WORLD
As Paul Buchanan did on Mid Air, his solitary post-Blue Nile solo album, Sweden’s Emil Svanängen strips his seventh LP’s songs bare, leaving little more than his heartrending falsetto, fragile piano and wispy synth embellishments. So frail they last only 28 minutes, the results are indispensable company: Darling in fact sounds a little like a Buchanan classic, and Trifles dwindles to whistles and whimpers before blossoming defiantly, while Habibi (A Clear Black Line) is so emotionally transparent it could be a lost Blossom Dearie recording.