Pitchfork

"Sing along...if you dare," cautioned Scandinavian songstress Ida Maria last Friday at Brooklyn's Union Hall before launching into a song called "We're All Going to Hell". (Chorus: "We are all going to hell, yeah!") People sang along. Ida Maria is that type of rock star-- she'll make an audience dare. And, while the basement venue couldn't have held more than about 100 people, those lucky few definitely witnessed a Rock Star. She sang about sex, prostitution, and drugs, poured water down her checkerboard flannel, and played guitar with the ferocity of PJ Harvey.

It may seem like every band from Scandinavia is either polite or wistful or both nowadays, but not Ida Maria. With her smoke-soaked voice, shambling tunes and hooks like "I like you so much better when you're naked!" the singer-- along with her three-man band-- comes across distinctly British. Funny and clever and unafraid; something like the Libertines meets Arctic Monkeys meets Art Brut with a pin-up's roguishness. (Her startling debut LP, Fortress Round My Heart, broke the UK Top 40 last year-- it'll get a U.S. release this April on Upper 11.)

At Union Hall on Friday, Ida Maria apologized for her shot vocals, but it wasn't necessary-- raggedness is her charm. So when she encored with "Stella," her voice cracking all over the song's namesake "43-year-old hooker from downtown," the imperfect wails easily got to the heart of the matter. Brando would approve.

Ida Maria:

01-23 Stavanger, Norway - Checkpoint Charlie
01-31 Finnmark, Norway - Fjellhallen i Kirkenes
02-11 London, England - Koko (NME Brats show)
02-12 Manchester, England - Academy (NME Brats show)
02-13 Glasgow, Scotland - The Garage (NME Brats show)