A beautiful, pensive tune about fallibility.
Danish musician Nanna Øland Fabricius has been making music as Oh Land for more than 10 years, where she uses a synthpop background to explore the full gamut of human emotions and experiences. “Human Error” may be her more fragile and gorgeous song yet. The simmering ballad dives into the mistakes and missteps that are impossible to plan for and can hurt the most.
Produced by Thomas Bartlett, AKA Doveman, the piano and atmospheric synths fall gently, bringing to mind snowfall at sunset. It’s the ideal setting for Fabricius’ lyrics. She sings in the chorus, “Adding all the numbers correct/No missing digits, no real mistakes/Just human errors/Make human hearts break,” leading into a swell of strings. It’s a magical, melancholy song.
“Human Error” will be on Oh Land’s new album, Family Tree, due out on May 3rd.