Album cover

Although the CD release seems to have been delayed until May 9th, Linnea Dale‘s new album Good Goodbyes was released digitally last Friday, April 25th, and is now available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Wimp.

The album includes three songs produced and co-written by Paul: “Better Without You”, “Sweet Life” and “With Eyes Closed”. Paul is also credited with keyboards, bass, drums, programming and guitar on all three songs.

“I loved her voice from the first moment. It doesn’t matter what kind of microphone or filters you use. It’s all there from the get-go”, Paul tells VG in an interview today.

“She has her own knack for melodies, and an atypical way of using words. It flows beautifully”, he says.

“This is the first time I’ve done something like this, and I liked it. It felt good; a different perspective. But I was under the impression I wouldn’t have to do any promo work, so this is a bit of a downer”, Paul jokes.

VG also asks him which other Norwegian artists he’d be interested in producing:

“There are constantly new and cool artists emerging back home in Norway. I’d need to look into that. But I really loved Susanne Sundfør’s “White Foxes”.

Linnea Dale’s upcoming second solo album is now scheduled for release in May, according to Aftenposten. It will include 3 songs written by Paul.

Last night, Linnea took part in the first Eurovision semi-final with the song High Hopes (not written by Paul), which got her qualified for next week’s final in Oslo Spektrum.

Update (14/3): The album release has been moved forward to April 25th, according to a Warner Music press release. The 11-track album is called Good Goodbyes and has been produced by Kim Edward Bergseth and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy.

Linnea Dale
(Photo: Warner Music)

Sunnmørsposten reports that Paul is among the producers on Linnea Dale‘s second solo album, set to be released later this year.

Linnea Dale was one of the finalists on the fifth season of Norwegian Idol in 2007, where she was mentored by Morten and performed “Velvet” in one particular a-ha themed episode. In 2009 she was a guest-vocalist on the Donkeyboy album Caught in a Life, which included the hit singles “Ambitions” and “Sometimes”. Together with Donkeyboy she toured the UK and Norway with a-ha on the Foot of the Mountain tour.

Her first solo album Lemoyne Street was released in 2012, which included the single “Children of the Sun”. This was followed by “A Room in a City” in March 2013; the first single from the upcoming second album – which was going to be released last fall, but is now coming out in 2014.

“I’m aiming for a more electronic sound. At least elements of it, unlike Lemoyne Street which was a more acoustic, live-based album”, Linnea told 730.no last year.

Linnea has been in New York several times over the last couple of years, and is listed in the credits of Paul’s studio engineer Eliot Leigh.

“There’s a female singer that has recorded a lot of Paul’s songs, that may be released”, a-ha manager Harald Wiik told fans in September 2012, possibly referring to Linnea.

Before the album is released she’ll be taking part in the Norwegian Eurovision Song Contest finals in Oslo in March with the song “High Hopes”, which is why she’s in the news today.

Update (Jan. 29th): a-ha.com posted an update on this, with some info from Paul:

“Linnea and I wrote and recorded some songs together this last fall. A truly enjoyable and new experience for me. I’m really glad to hear that the album is coming out now. When it does; do check out a song called “With eyes closed”… I like it a lot!”