Sometimes a track hits you like a freight train, its relentless determination to get to the end of what you’re stuck on completely driving you. Sometimes, its hopefulness, sometimes its hopelessness, but most times it’s just plain old honest happiness and truth. In the case of Anna Leone’s “Age of Sleep” the track takes you into your own personal hopelessness, as you desperately try to overcome age and nationality to find your true love. At times a track feels like it was staring right at you, with its open, raw, honest emotions leaving you with no place to run. The first single from twenty-two-year-old Anna Leone comes across as being a lost person on her own, caught between a broken marriage and a fading Nationality, as she sings about the futility of youth and how sleep may only come once more.
The song opens up with Anna on the verge of tears, as she laments over the death of her brother in a car crash, her words clearly expressing the grief and confusion brought on by the death of a loved one. The lyrics reflect a dark sense of humor, as Anna tries desperately not to let the matter get too far away from her mind, but then finally comes the break that’s been desperately needed by all of us, a break that brings light into the world and helps Anna to finally take note of what’s truly important in life and to move on. The title “Swedish Anna” pretty much sums up the whole tune, with Anna singing about her longing for a Swedish girl, who’s perhaps more interested in her career as a singer-songwriter than her native country, while a nationalistic Sweden seems distant to her.
It goes without saying that Anna Leone has a talent for picking songs that people will identify with, which makes her debut album even more impressive. “Swedish Anna” manages to showcase her unique voice, a unique style of writing, and the range of emotions that express itself through her music. She may be singing about her love for a Scandinavian girl, but she will always manage to give her listeners something to connect with.