It's difficult to pull out certain tracks over others, as the whole point of this style is the journey as a whole and not the pit-stop of a particular song. In fact, the opening song "Someone Swallowed A Star" sounds more like a mournful opening of a musical or play than for a pop album. But that's also how most of the album unfolds, through small vignettes of story as opposed to bold declaration. The gentle lyric sweetness of "The Gray" could be about young love, while the instrumental "Intersection" might be better seen as an emotional (-less?) Intermission. But even as you get to the slightly more buoyant and upbeat "If You Leave Me Now", you have a sneaky suspicion that things will turn out alright for him/them/us.
The songwriting itself is very singer-songwriter oriented, and comparisons to some of Nick Drake's work wouldn't be out of order. What Ágúst does that is unique, however, is to reign in all these diverse elements (singer-songwriter content, art-deco arrangements) into a cohesive way of thinking. He doesn't just dabble in this particular world of sound, he is completely immersed in it.
The question is, do we as listeners even allow ourselves to get immersed in music anymore? It often seems that many people's interest in music extends no further than what a commercial or a ringtune can do for them. Has our attention span been swallowed? Not for all of us, and I hope not for you. But my guess is that if you're this far into a music review for an Icelandic troubadour, you will be most pleased with Swallowed A Star.
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1 - Connie Phillips
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