Anouk

The Dutch singer’s debut Together Alone arrived in 1997. “Nobody’s Wife” became its breakthrough, pairing a hard, compact riff with a performance that sounded impatient with every limit placed around it. “Sacrifice” and the quieter stretches of the album showed a different side from the start. Bart van Veen became an important writing partner, while Barry Hay and George Kooymans contributed to the early recording story.

Urban Solitude and Graduated Fool developed the rock side of that identity, but Hotel New York in 2004 gave her one of her richest sets of songs. Much of the material was written during a stay at the Rotterdam hotel that supplied the title. “Girl” has a bright, driving surface; “Lost” makes far more space for hesitation and hurt. The distance between those songs is part of the album’s strength.

Who’s Your Momma followed in 2007, and later records continued moving through soul, pop, orchestral writing and more restrained arrangements. “Birds”, her 2013 Eurovision entry, offered a particularly clear reminder that she could hold attention through atmosphere rather than force. It is a different scale of performance from the early rock singles, with the same unmistakable voice at the centre.

The useful way into Anouk is to resist choosing between the tough songs and the vulnerable ones. The phrasing links them. A line can sound blunt, wounded or quietly resolved without becoming polished into anonymity. In a catalogue that covers several styles and languages, that directness supplies the continuity.