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Elly Roberts reviews
Rough Trade Records
- Released: September 2008
- Rating: 8/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
With things hotting up on Icelands financial scene, its good to know someones got a cool head.
Thats 31 year-old Emiliana Torrini, the half Icelandic/Italian beautywho wrote Slow for Kylie Minogue – oops, Kylie.
She is best known to film fans for singing Gollums Song for the end creditsin The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. She got the job because Bjorkwas pregnant at the time, also appearing in the film.
Me And Armini, her fifth album, (the first three were Icelandic releasesonly) is a far cry from the bubble gum pop shes best known for. A one-timerecruit of label One Little Indian a decade ago, this is a peculiar hybrid ofsay Lily Allen and Adele with a smattering of compatriot Bjork (who she occasionally sounds like), though her core template is rootsy folk witha teeny weenie commercial twist surfacing here and there, making this a very special album indeed.
Her voice is sharp and crystal clear perfectly matching her masterful songcraftand the sonic soundscapes she carefully texturises her free-flowing songs with.Birds is the first example of her fearless adventures, as the solid and quaintballad flutters along while the techno-tweaking bolsters an already beautiful track,at a whopping six minutes long. She needs that time to get the best out ofthe sonics alone.
You can hear more playfulness on the thumping pseudo-rockabilly Jungle Drum.For me, shes at her most potent when shes working around her delicate acoustic forayslike the simple and achingly beautiful Hold Heart, the fragile, exquisite and mournful Damien Rice-like Beggars Prayer and closer Bleeder.
When she pushes out the boat – Dead Duck Gun – shes almost exhibitingBjork-like off-radar tendencies, but not as whacky. Then she surprises us allwith a sublime lovers rock/reggae gem for the cool and swaggering title track.Shes already digitally-released Me And Armini (19 Aug) followed by singleJungle Drum (29 Sept), with little success.
Big Jumps IS the one to break the UK .trust me Emiliana !
First it was Bjork and then Sigur Ros to bring attention to the island. HopefullyEmiliana will make it a hatrick, one day.
File under: Luuuuverly.
Weblink:emilianatorrini.com
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Fireheads
2. Me And Armini
3. Birds
4. Heard It All Before
5. Ha Ha
6. Big Jumps
7. Jungle Drum
8. Hold Heart
9. Gun
10. Beggars Prayer
11. Dead Duck
12. BleederView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.