Customer Reviews

While the City Sleeps

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Kalli once fronted critics' darling Without Gravity, applying his airy Nick Drake-ish vocal to the band's floating pop-dream debut Tenderfoot, exemplified by the distinctive "Beautiful Son." Three years later, it's clear who gave Without Gravity its weight, as Kalli releases what might as well be Tenderfoot, Part 2. Working with producer / musician Arnar Gudjonsson, Kalli looses his quiet vocal on a set of rainy, synth-laden, acoustic-guitar-based songs that center on sadness, solitude, and post-midnight solipsism - yet melancholy has rarely sounded so pretty. Sweet dreams are made of this.

When his Icelandic four piece Without Gravity dissolved after their 2005 release "Tenderfoot," singer/guitarist Kalli set forth on a solo career that expanded on the group's intimate, down-tempo acoustic folk-meets-alt-country. Adding a helping of electricity he catches the sort of mesmerizing grooves that Luna (or perhaps the Feelies on barbiturates) made so effective. The heavier backings, particularly the low piano notes, provide contrast to Kalli's ethereal vocals, and push him to sing more soulfully on several tracks. The songs are still introspective and whispery, but listeners who found the acoustic approach of Without Gravity a bit fey will find this combination more compelling and memorable. It may be tough to shoehorn this new sound (with its drums and amplifiers) into the tiny performance spaces Kalli's previous group preferred to play, but it'd be worth sitting with a larger audience to experience this new direction. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]