Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.12.2011, Blaðsíða 32

Music | CD Reviews
Lay Low Vicky
Brostinn strengur
www.laylow.is
Cast A Light
www.vickytheband.com
Lay Low now rocks apparently.
Good on her!
Girl Power With A Mohawk And A
Male Drumme
Winter Sun’ is a jukebox of starry
warmth, nostalgic romance, and care-
free fun. The album is acoustic sim-
plicity mixed with reverb and celestial
twinkles in a way that feels fresh and
natural. Snorri has writing chops for
days and composes tunes that made
me want to watch fireflies from the
back porch with a glass of lemonade.
‘Winter Sun’ is an album of soulful
twang and vintage feel goodness that
transported me back to my favourite
Nashville hangout, surrounded by a
room full of overalls, horn rimmed
glasses and gingham. The arrange-
ments are imaginative in texture and
accompaniment, and the modern
beats and atmospheric glitter add
something unexpected and intriguing
to Snorri’s song-writing. ‘Winter Sun’
is an album of beautiful songs that
sound like they belong together.
- jESSE zIEbART
Snorri Helgason
Winter Sun
www.snorrihelgason.com
My friends in Nashville will love it
Once upon a time there was an
Icelandic band called Vicky Pollard
that consisted of four girls in front of a
male drummer. However, the ‘Pollard’
was dropped when the ladies and
gentleman released their debut album
‘Pull Hard’ in 2008.
Vicky’s sound is best described
as poppy metal or dubbed metal pop.
Just before delivering their second
baby, a guitarist left the band. The
quartet, three mothers and a proud,
drumming father, now present to us
a child born with a green mohawk:
‘Cast A Light.’ The kid was conceived
and delivered at Tankurinn studios,
Flateyri, in the far and icy Westfjords.
The album was produced by the
experienced Jason Allen from Blasting
Room studios, and it tells. Singer Eygló
Scheving’s voice is getting stronger,
and the riffs are well befitting the pile-
driving drums.
This is a great album. The mellow
openers are nice, and these are fol-
lowed by a mix of hits and rock-
ers. The band is at their best in the
acoustic ‘Gold,’ and the album itself
deserves some gold, too.
- dR. WIM VAN HOOSTE
For her third album ‘Brostinn strengur’
(“Broken String”), Lay Low has sup-
plied the music to words written by
well known Icelandic female poets.
After listening to the end result, I
feel she should write tunes to other
people’s lyrics more often, for ‘Bros-
tinn Strengur’ is musically Lay Low’s
strongest album to date.
As with her previous albums,
there’s still a pervasive influence of
country and blues, but it’s not as rote
and one-dimensional as before. Both
her music writing and production work
now show a confidence and willing-
ness to utilise a wider variety of styles
and rhythms. One moment, she’s quiet
and hushed to simple electronic ma-
nipulations (‘Kvöld í skógi’), the next
she’s rocking the fuck out (‘Brostinn
strengur’), which is definitely some-
thing you wouldn’t have associated
with her past solo work.
The real paydirt of the album
though is listening to the dual
coupling of ‘Lífið’—a haunted wood
of a song with its judicious use of
reverb and unsettling organ and wind
sounds—and ‘Helganga,’ with its per-
fectly timed, dynamic drum rolls and
chilling choir accompaniment.
‘Brostinn strengur’ shows a grow-
ing maturity in Lay Low’s sound and
songwriting, which has produced an
album that’s a much more rewarding
listening experience.
- bOb CLUNESS
Singapore Sling
For Weeks
singaporesling
Speak softly and they won't listen
anyway
Oh ok then, Henrik Björnsson sounds
like some kind of deadpan cynical
cowboy fronting a hybrid Pet Shop
Boys / drugged-up psychadelic shoe-
gazey type bunch of reprobates and
the sentiments are mostly downbeat
or nihilistic.
But that don't mean it isn't good
to chug along and indulge, neither.
Oh no boy, there's much to be had in
wallowing in love until you're insane
in ‘Freaks,’ or ‘Poison Ape,’ which
somehow thumps together Adam and
the Ants, The Stooges and a merman's
voice from beyond the grave. Not the
easiest to dance to, but that's hardly
the point. It really is pop with its guts
turned inside out and re-spliced in
nearly the same place.
- jOE SHOOMAN
Hjálmar
Órar
hjalmarmusic
Forward movement, lacking in
highlights
Hjálmar live a somewhat unchallenged
existence as the kings of the Icelandic
reggae scene (as there are barely any
other reggae bands out here), and
while they do a tip top job of creating
a unique sound, blending the warmth
of Jamaica with the eccentricity of
Iceland, this isolation means that
their progress musically is slow and
difficult.
‘Órar’, their fifth album, is another
step down the path that the band has
been forging for the last seven years.
This latest effort bears some of the
fruits of this hard won progress and
moves into a more funky sound, away
from the same old, same old of the
last three albums. Unfortunately, the
album sorely lacks the very important
element of a stand-out track. While
they have produced something that
seems to make moves in a new direc-
tion, it lacks a defining element to
make it great.
- bERGRúN ANNA
HALLSTEINSdóTTIR
This is a solid release that old and new
fans alike will probably enjoy, but the
production is preventing it from reach-
ing its potential.
First off, some shifts between sec-
tions are uncomfortable (the songs
were most likely recorded in sections
rather than in one continuous take),
which means the songs lose a sense
of ‘realness.’ It doesn't sound like one
continuous performance but instead
like a composite of parts, cut and
pasted together to make a Franken-
stein monster of a song. Furthermore,
the loud, rocking parts lack ‘balls.’
There is difference between loud and
‘balls.’ Y'see, loud is loud. ‘Balls’ is
loud and gritty and overdriven and
overblown and sounds like the fucking
apocalypse. Why doesn't this sound
like the apocalypse?!
And last but not least, the reverb
on the drums in ‘Revive’ when the
song ‘explodes’ makes them sound
like a Phil Collins out-take from In The
Air Tonight…Phil Collins god-dammit!
I say, ‘explodes’ because this point in
the song is like one unholy cluster-
fuck of production problems. It goes
off like a damp squib and struggles
through its transition like a drunk try-
ing to make it through their front door
after a night on the town. C+. Must try
harder.
- CLydE bRAdFORd
For a Minor Reflection
EP
www.foraminorreflection.com
Things could be so much better
32
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 2011
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