“Innundir Skinni” opens with just Ólöf Arnalds voice, and in some ways that’s an apt way to begin – Arnalds uses her voice as an instrument so well and so effectively on each song. There is a delicate, see-through beauty to the album. It’s definitely best as a late-night album – it’s the perfect come-down album. (Do those things still exist? What happened to that genre? Did it get swallowed by the millennium?)
Anyway, it’s the perfect album for the wee small hours of the morning or for wintery Sunday afternoons when the sunlight is watery and thin.
The title track (the second song) is my favourite track – the wonder of Arnalds’ voice is that there is a strength *and* a brittleness to it. The music travels up and down the octaves, and while I can’t understand what she is saying, I feel connected to it nonetheless.
“Crazy Car” is one of the few English language songs – but the lyrics are a bit nonsense. “Please please think inside the box, we have made it circle-shaped”. She is joined on the song by a male singer – it’s about urging a friend not to choose the crazy car aka going to America. The lyrics are a bit mad and at times indecipherable – it seems Arnalds takes her stand about remaining true to her roots. (In fact, this is the first ever English language song she has sung.)
While the majority of songs are sung in Icelandic, they have a direct and commanding quality to them that demands your attention. The music compliments and augments the way that Arnalds voice soars above it.
“Vinkonur”’ has a harp accompanying the singing, determined plucking sweeping up and down the octaves with a glockenspiel joining later on – I find the song has a wonderful reminiscence of the sea and the movement of waves. It also reminds me of folk songs from northern European coastal countries, like Scotland and Ireland. Both this song and “Svir Birki” have a timelessness quality about them, perhaps it’s the fact that I can’t understand the lyrics, but it feels like it could have been written 1,000 years ago. The latter song reminds me of listening to Old English tales, like Beowulf, the up and down sing-song quality enhancing this feeling.
The phrasing of “Jonathan” is again reminiscent of a poem – rising and falling as if telling us a story. The nautical theme returns with “tooraloora”s as good as any old sea shanty and a boat dipping and driving through the waves appear early on in the lyrics. This song probably has the strongest backing – guitars, drums, a harp, possibly a piano echoing and reverbing in the background – and the lyrics are lighter and less (although in English) than in other songs.
“Madrid” has Arnalds’ voice almost breaking in parts; it feels translucent and sad, while a guitar plucks in the background, sounding slightly flamenco (albeit very slowed down). A violin is added at the end to complement the mournful tone.
“Surrender” opens with a harp and the tune that is plucked later becomes Arnalds’ melody against which her guest vocalist, Björk, sails over the top. Again, the song is English-language (so only the third out of nine) but the lyrics are almost absorbed into the music, and become washed against the wall of harp music. It is a very interesting move to have Björk as a guest vocalist, indeed she only appears 2 minutes 39 into the song. She sings almost a completely different song, her voice sounds distant as if she is in a different room. Björk’s voice is strong and incredibly recognisable – but it’s as if Arnalds is saying ‘Here is Björk, and here is me. We may both be Icelandic female singers but we are still quite different.’
“Allt i Guddi” closes the album as a mirror to the opening track, there are no lyrics just “la de dum de dum”s and the harp is strong and clear, while the singing is muffled and secondary. Again, the voice is one of the small quartet of instruments on display in the song. The song builds and builds toward the end and then just quietly finishes, leaving a peaceful space.
It’s a gorgeous album, perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but it opens a world which grows with each listen.
No comments:
Post a Comment