Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent folk styled poppy numbers, with dark and delicate tension., September 14, 2008
Born to an Italian father and Icelandic mother, Emiliana made a few albums when she was young that only saw release in Iceland, but with her widely released "Love In The Time Of Science" she gained a wider audience in Europe.
She worked closely with multi-instrumentalist Dan Carey on "Fisherman's Woman" and on that album and this new one you can notice how well suited they are together, comfortable to explore any avenues that they encounter, and make something worthwhile out of it.
Turns in co-writing Kylie Minogue single "Slow", and lending her vocals to the spectral Gollum's Song over the credits to "The Lord of the Rings", are other notable, and slightly surprising, facts about her.
Her seventh album sees her embracing a quietly startling range of mainly acoustic moods: from exuberant, rackety rock and roll through reflectively picked ballads to the stalkerish reggae bounce of the title track.
The simple, stripped down instrumentation - often little more than Emiliana's crystalline voice, a guitar and understated keyboards - seem perhaps a little too languid and sparse, even a little samey. But an extended stay reveals sharp jolts of beauty, delicate little flourishes and unexpected oddities hidden in the apparently simple song structures.
There's a murky undertone to a lot of the tracks on this album, from stalker-ish lyrics ("Me And Armini"), to cynical and sardonic perspectives ("Ha Ha", "Heard It All Before"), to menacingly sexy ("Gun"), modern day narratives that reflect the darkness of obsession, lust and heartbreak.
But then there is "Big Jumps" and "Jungle Drum", both emanate an exuberant skewed positivity, and a few others in the reflective, laid back, optimistic style she is so good at, which dispels some of the gloom.
All in all, "Me And Armini is a less introspective affair, showcasing excellent folk styled poppy numbers, with dark and delicate tension.
Love in the Time of Science
Fisherman's Woman
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cool as ice!!!, September 11, 2008
Emiliana Torrini is a 31 year old Italian/Icelandic singer and her CD "Me and Armini" is Folk-ish tinged with Jazz, electronica, and even Reggae. She's written songs in the past for Kylie, sung the end theme song for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", and worked with Paul Oakenfold and The Sneaker Pimps, and all this piqued my interest (Ok, maybe not the Kylie bit).
Her music is very guitar driven; fingerplucked guitars, her smooth airy vocals (think Feist or even Kate Havnevik), and some flourishes. Soothing and elfin sounding.
A song like the atmospheric "Gun" starts off with a simple muted guitar riff, which progresses into bursts, with smatterings of percussion, some haunting effects, and a breathy performance; a bit White Stripes-like.
Title track "Me and Armini" is a light summery Reggae-ish song that Lily Allen would kill for, while "Jungle drum" is a bouncy incredibly catchy song with vocal percussion impressions adding a nice touch. The acoustic "Birds" has a serene Trip hop-ish interlude.
She reminds me a wee bit of fellow Icelandic songstress Björk on the eerie clap-filled "Heard it all before" with tumbling guitar sounds and bass (and much like Björk, pronounces the letter Z as S). Simply beautiful! "Ha ha" is a more spare sounding acoustic song with a dreamy delivery and a Jazzy feel. In a similar mould is the gentle and stunning "Hold heart".
"Big jumps" is a sunny song with a catchy "doop-de-doop" refrain, while the Jazzy "Dead duck" sounds intentionally off beat to haunting effect. Closing is the melancholic lullaby-like "Bleeder".
Unfortunately, music this creative rarely bothers the charts. What more can I say? This is an album that just grows and grows on you. There must be something about those Icelandic volcanoes that gives rise to such incredible talent as Sigur Rós, Björk, and now Emiliana. I urge you to seek out and get this CD. Awesome!!
P.S. In loving memory of Sadie Ette and all the other thousands who lost their lives on 9/11, 7 years ago today.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Without you I would never rise., October 7, 2008
Emiliana Torrini's last album was all wistful folk. Before that, it was all equally wistful electronic pop and the creepily pretty closing song to "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."
But before all that, she dabbled happily in everything from jazz to J-pop, raw-throated indie-rock to the blues -- and she did a pretty good job at all of them. And while her fifth album "Me and Armini" doesn't quite explore EVERYTHING she's done before, Torrini slips back comfortably into some of the musical niches she has already carved. Her delicate pop is flavoured by tinges of other styles and genres, and sometimes those other sounds (as in "Gun") overwhelm it completely.
"Somebody's got a long way to go/You're not sitting by the phone no more... Mmm, are we going crazy?/It's not fair to say we wasted time/In my view we just used it all up..." Torrini sings wistfully over a mellow folk-guitar. But she tries a totally different approach to a no-letting-go-love in the titular track -- it's an upbeat jazzy song with a vaguely stalkerish sound ("Some people think that/I'm heading for a meltdown... This I know/she doesn't love you like I do/yes it's clear/she'll never love you like me...").
A number of these songs stem musically from the bittersweet folk of her last album "Fisherman's Woman" -- the haunting seaside sound of "Birds," the prettily malicious "Ha Ha," and a string of low-key, folky melodies that rely mostly on Torrini's vocals and a guitar. But she mixes up the sound a little -- some of these melodies end with a thin mat of woobly synth, and the acoustic pop number "Big Jumps" is anything but wistful and low-key. It's all sunny joyousness and fun ("Go on, make some BIG JUMPS, BIG JUMPS/you afraid to break some bones?").
And then there are some songs that, stylistically speaking, belong to "Me and Armini" alone. These tend to be a bit darker -- there's the rhythmic organ-keyboard of "Heard It All Before," and the squiggling, fast-paced rocker "Jungle Drum" ("Hey, read my lips/cause all they say is kiss kiss kiss kiss!/No one ever stops/my hands are in the air/yes I'm in love!"). And "Gun" is a masterpiece of quietly distorted guitar, with Torrini murmuring a tale of despair, infidelity and gleeful murder of a wife's lover.
Musically, Emiliana Torrini doesn't really try anything new in "Me and Armini," because she's dabbled in almost every kind of pop except symphonic metal (and for all I know she's tried that too). But she does polish up the whole electro/jazz/pop sound to near-perfection while still blending it with folky acoustics, and takes a few musical risks as well. Not that I'm complaining, because pretty much all of those risks pay off and leave you awaiting more.
Acoustic guitar takes center stage in this album, strumming gently like a forest creek under Torrini's vocals, with a few exceptions like the electric riffs in "Jungle Drum" and "Gun." And Torrini drapes those deceptively simple-sounding guitar melodies in expansive extras -- jazzy drums, patches of heavy distortion, swathes of shimmering synth, piano and soundclips of tinkly windchimes. One of the most memorable: "Heard It All Before's" thumping organ-keyboard melody getting swallowed by clashing drums and ghostly riffs.
Torrini's girlish, chilly elfin vocals are often compared to Bjork, but she frankly sounds a lot more innocent and emotional. And her songs are nice as well, tending to focus on the mysteries and pain of romantic love, and even when she sings "ha... ha... ha.... hear me laughin'" at a former lover's trouble, she sounds mournful. But she can turn on the joy just as quickly with happy bouncy calls of, "Hey there sunshine lift my heart/I know life is long but it goes so fast/I love you never feeling old/You never bought the rubbish that they sold!"
With, I might add, the occasional foray into creepyville -- that gleeful front-row seat to manslaughter and the weird obsession with Armini are chilling at times, no matter how pretty her voice is ("Stop your shaking, sweating, whining and regretting/You're making a scene that is going to get you caught...").
"Me and Armini" allows Emiliana Torrini to expand her folk sound and polish it to a jewel-like hue, with some darker facets and delightfully sweet love songs. Definitely a good listen.
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