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Avg: 4.0 (38 ratings)
- Date Released: September 24, 2007
- Genre: Electronic
- Label: FatCat Records / PIAS Digital
Icelandic electronicists deepen and expand their organic groove.
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We Say...
After Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir left múm last year, the experimental Icelandic band seemed to end up in the also-ran pile. Their field-day lullabies had lost the downy voice that made them so distinctive, and the public seemed more excited about what Valtýsdóttir’s new project might sound like than about the band she’d left behind. They were, after all, three years away from Summer Make Good, which itself had the creaks and wood-block clappings of a dying ship sinking into its last berth. Then Valtýsdóttir and her hubby — resident Animal Collective folk-freak Avey Tare — issued the abortive backwards love paean Pullhair Rubeye — a Narcissian effort at best. Now thankfully, comes múm’s fourth album,Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy — a woodsy set that continues the group's move away from the Day-Glo electronics of 2002’s Finally We Are No One, deepening and expanding Summer's organic groove.
For those worried about just how múm might sound without Valtýsdóttir, Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy answers with a stripped-back tone and a new concentration on short-form alternapop tracks. The singing is now done by committee, in drooping choirs and duets where it’s often hard to pick out just who’s responsible. Lead single, “They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Exploded,” is a popping, percussive getaway of a song. Lacking much of their former broad layering and atmospheric swoon, it focuses instead on a tight assembly of twitching electronics, harmonica, and harmonizing. Likewise, “Moon Pulls” is as hushed and solemn as múm’s ever been — a piano echoing in empty space — and “Marmalade Fires” shows an affinity for the anthems of Broken Social Scene, with a bottom-fed beat and slow acoustic sway that patiently coalesces into chorus.
Despite this newly direct songwriting, there are still plenty of moments on Go Go Smear that offer sheer sound-experience. Original duo Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason were joined in the studio by five of their friends, several of whom have prior experience with film scores. The bells, accordion and speckles of voice on “School Song Misfortune,” revel in ethereal mood without ever shaping into song, while “I Was Her Horse” starts with a harmonica straight out of Once Upon a Time in the West before a mournful trumpet and accordion join in the funeral march. At the record’s end comes “Winter (What We Never Were After All),” a fitting closer that could have been in any of Dario Argento’s best giallos. With a gorgeous choir drifting over detuned piano and loops of soft noise, it’s an intoxicating finale, a summation of an album that finds múm both restricting their music while creating those lofty moodpieces we’ve come to expect. -
They Say...
All too often, when a band loses core members, it's a bad sign -- and that goes double if the departing member is a vocalist. In Múm's case, however, paring down to just Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason opened an array of possibilities for Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy. Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir's elfin vocals came to define Múm just as much as, if not more than, the twinkling mix of electronics and indie pop that surrounded her, and by the time of Summer Make Good, that sound -- which felt so fresh circa Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Was OK -- seemed a little predictable. For this album, Tynes and Smárason brought in an entirely new crew of musicians, including two vocalists, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Mr. Silla. Adding just one new singer can alter a group's sound radically; with two new voices on Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy, the changes are dramatic -- but they're also more than just OK. Tynes and Smárason sound liberated from any expectations of what a Múm album should be, and they take the opportunity to stretch out and try some new approaches. The hazy, strange innocence of the band's previous work sounded like Múm was somehow able to commit the fever dreams of sickly children to tape; here, Múm's music is still sparkling and childlike, but it's also much brighter and livelier. "Blessed Brambles"' sprightly, ping-ponging beats and chanted boy-girl vocals make it clear that this is a different Múm right from the start, and the band spends the rest of Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy moving away from their old sound. Sometimes, they take baby steps: "Marmalade Fires"' gently rolling melody and distorted beats are quintessentially Múm, but the song is more structured and immediate than most of the band's other work. "These Eyes Are Berries" could be from some lost, twisted children's album; its brass, glockenspiel, and singalong "la la la"s are undeniably cheery, but the sudden, ominous twists the song takes give the impression of dancing too close to the darkest part of an enchanted forest. Other times, Múm takes steps so big, they really should be called leaps. "Dancing Behind My Eyelids" is easily one of the band's most animated tracks, with a beat that sounds like a hyperactive typewriter and a melody as chilly and sweet as frosted snowflakes. "Moon Pulls," however, gets the honor of being Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy's most striking and unique song: its gorgeous, contemplative melody and Mr. Silla's plaintive vocals make it more akin to Misery Is a Butterfly-era Blonde Redhead than anything in Múm's catalog. All of the album's experimentation takes some getting used to -- as does its asymmetric track listing, which begins with full-fledged songs and tapers down to wordless interludes like "Rhubarbidoo"'s toy instrument fanfares. Some fans will miss Múm's wispier, bygone days, but those willing to give the band a chance to change and grow will welcome the chance to get to know them all over again.
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| 01. |  |
Blessed Brambles
|
6:00 |
|
| 02. | |
A Little Bit, Sometimes
|
3:50 |
|
| 03. | |
They Made Frogs Smoke 'Til They Exploded
|
4:02 |
|
| 04. | |
These Eyes Are Berries
|
3:00 |
|
| 05. | |
Moon Pulls
|
2:32 |
|
| 06. | |
Marmalade Fires
|
5:03 |
|
| 07. | |
Rhuubarbidoo
|
1:34 |
|
| 08. | |
Dancing Behind My Eyelids
|
4:07 |
|
| 09. | |
School Song Misfortune
|
2:39 |
|
| 10. | |
I Was Her Horse
|
2:08 |
|
| 11. | |
Guilty Rocks
|
5:02 |
|
| 12. | |
Winter (What We Never Were After All)
|
4:08 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 44:05 Total Length
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Credits
- Samuli Kosminen - Group Member // Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson - Group Member // Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir - Artwork // Hildur Guðnadóttir - Group Member // Gunnhildur Einaesdóttir - Harp // Sigurlaug Gísladóttir - Group Member // Guðbjörg Hlin Guðmundsdóttir - Violin // Laufey Jensdóttir - Violin // Björn Kristiansson - Arranger // Pórarinn Mar Baldursson - Viola // Páll Ivan Pálsson - Bass // Örvar Póreyjarson Smárason - Group Member
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