The only things I knew about Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini before listening to this album were:
1. She wrote 'Slow' for Kylie.
2. I was considering buying her last album, 'Fisherman's Woman', but my friend Jason bought it and texted me saying "don't buy this. it is really boring".
Not facts that would normally inspire me to buy a record but something about the blurb for this one and the reviews it got made me think it might have some of the edge of a Stina Nordenstam record.
'Fireheads' which opens and 'Gun' which comes near the end are not far off fulfilling this promise. Dark and tense, acoustic guitar mixed with beats, they make for engaging listens. In between, the album attempts a number of different styles rather like a poor cricketer so desperate to get in the team that he claims he can bat, bowl and keep wicket. We have upbeat electro-pop ('Me And Armini'), strange songs that remind me of 1990s Australian pop band Frente ('Big Jumps') and absolutely bizarre mish-mashes with vocal immitations of drums ('Jungle Drums').
Virtually everything else is bland, mid tempo coffee shop music. It won't disturb you but it won't interest you enough to stop you reading your paper and drinking your coffee. Nothing wrong with coffee music of course, but you wouldn't want to buy it. I have nothing to add to this, except to say that before anyone accuses me of only listening to this once, I made several attempts to like it and that meant that I had to listen to 'Jungle Drums' on more than one occasion. Not easy.
3.0
No comments:
Post a Comment