Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.01.2005, Blaðsíða 23

by Árni Viðar
PALLI and KALLI: Do they care?
At the bottom with Páll Rósinkrans
With the hunt for a new Idol already
underway, it won’t be long until Kalli
Bjarni is merely yesterday’s news.
Sure, it’s a shame for him, but the
record industry is a cruel business
and far from as glamorous as it may
appear to unsuspecting contenders
of the Idol-crown. One would
still expect the behind-the-scene
virtuosos to dish out some instant
pop-hits, ensuring Kalli Bjarni a
proper lift-off as he reaches for the
stars, but they appear to be not in the
mood.
At the bottom of the resulting pile of
mess is Kalli Bjarni’s duet with Páll
Rósinkrans; not only because of the
song itself but the fact that the same
exact version appears on the latter’s
newly released cd. Of course, both
apply the same back-room staff and
to me, this factory-like stunt shows
how little everyone involved actually
cares about the music itself or any
potential listeners. Still, the fact they
had the sheer audacity to go through
with it meant that I could at least
have some laughs while listening
to these two otherwise forgettable
albums.
Neither Fish Nor Flesh
Our protagonists’ sad face on the
cover says it all really because the
majority of the 10 tracks are neither
one thing nor the other. A few of
them are decent enough for what
they are; mindless yet reasonably
catchy and certainly tolerable when
compared to over-zealous power-
ballads such as ‘Hvert eitt sólarlag’.
At times though, Kalli Bjarni himself
sounds like he’s got limited faith in
what he’s doing, or should I say what
he’s being told to do. The title of
the album’s feel-good finale, ‘Adeins
einu sinni’ (‘Only once’), says it all,
since it’s already looking increasingly
doubtful that Kalli Bjarni will get
an extension of his 15 minutes of
fame. Sales have reportedly been
disappointing and as previously
suggested, the Idol momentum
simply doesn’t seem to carry on
beyond the TV screen.
The system is crap but it works
An undeniably gifted singer (perhaps
in need of money?) enters a studio,
sings a handful of carefully selected
and unchallenging songs before
releasing an album he’s guaranteed
to sell shitloads of. Aah, the system
works. It’s a crappy system, I know,
but does Páll Rósinkrans really care?
Does he even care about his own
reputation as a serious musician?
As stated earlier, Páll is a talented if
unambitious singer who originally
made a name for himself with the
highly promising rock-outfit Jet
Black Joe in the early nineties. Fed
up with the rock’ n’ roll lifestyle, he
found religion and released a gospel
album to somewhat surprising
commercial success he’s been milking
ever since, playing it safe and making
carbon copies of already well-known
songs, thus insuring that nothing,
and I mean nothing, could possibly
upset the listeners or, god forbid,
take them by surprise.
In Pro-Tools We Trust
This time around though, all the
material is in Icelandic and, in
most cases, written especially for
the occasion. That may count as an
effort to improve but it’s a half-
hearted one as most of the songs fail
to make a notable impact. As with
his contrived “karaoke-albums,”
the recordings are top notch (In
Pro-Tools we trust), which is
hardly surprising given the fact that
every position is filled by a industry
professional, so the album ends up
sounding like the musical equivelant
of a Jerry Bruckheimer film.
It’s obviously hard to fault the
opener, written in memory of
the recently passed Pétur W.
Kristjánsson and the song that
follow’s, ‘Ad lifa lengi’, is mildly
catchy if nothing else. More
dramatic are ‘Nóttin er blind’, ‘Mín
eina von’ and ‘Eins og gengur’ (a
duet with Idol-star Kalli Bjarni)
which do have some effect but
surely not the intended as I got
shivers down my spine rather than
goosebumps. Thankfully, the rest of
the album seems to float harmlessly
away but even Páll’s vocals aren’t as
strong as often before, whether it’s
down to an off-day or simply lack
of general interest. So why does the
bandwagon keep on rolling? Is it all
really a matter of taste?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you will have heard of Idol. Kinda
makes you wish you were living under a rock, doesn’t it? Iceland’s very first Idol, Kalli Bjarni, is in
many ways the perfect choice; a good-looking sailor from a small harbour town, a family man and an
overall nice guy that swept “the nation” off its feet. It’s also very hard to fault him for the predictable
shortcomings of his debut because even if someone else had won the “prestigious award,” I’m positive his
or her album would have sounded pretty much the same. The producers stick to a given formula and
Kalli Bjarni gladly obliges because he is, after all, living the dream of being a pop-star.
Kalli Bjarni was apparently unavailable for this shoot.
He was out fishing.
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