Anna Ternheim

Her first official full-length release in the U.S., Halfway to Fivepoints is something of a journey through Ternheim's already successful international career. A critical darling in her native country—where her debut album, 2004's Something Outside, earned her a Swedish Grammy for Best New Artist—Ternheim has included some of her oldest and newest material on this album. The lone cover song on the disc is an exquisitely stripped-down and slowed cover of Fleetwood Mac's eighties hit "Little Lies."

As some of the more somber relationship songs on Halfway to Fivepoints suggest, the 29-year-old, Stockholm-based Ternheim isn't always happy about some of the things happening in her life. If the elegant, thoughtful collection maneuvers between folk and pop, conjuring the excitement and vitality of Beth Orton's early records, there's a melancholic thread tying the songs together. But it's a good melancholy, at times shot through with moments of sonic and lyrical uplift.