Not much discussion of the new album going on
I may as well start
tl;dr version: Lovely....8.5/10 if I had to give a score
song by song thoughts from first listen; (just random comments......dont hate)
Feburary MMX:
A more conventional Ulver song structure-wise. Reminds me of Nowhere/Catastrophe. Really nice piano and bass throughout. Garm is on top form here...especially approaching the glitchy/noisy climaxes. Another highlight is the little breakdown at 2:57 then back to building the tension. Epic vocal lines delivered throughout....."Birds in black and whiite, and the drums of waaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooorld warrrrr twoo"
Norweigan Gothic:Definite Shadows of The Sun vibe here....the violin is especially. Really nice ambient electronic sounds behind it all. Soft jazzy drums come in half-way through to give more meat to the song....Garm continues his restrained melancholic vocals. song fades out with some cool looped bird sound.
Providence:Beautiful piano intro and middle section. harmonized garm + guest female vox = sweeeeeet. violin still ever present. about halfway though things start getting creepy. drums come in to some agalloch-ish electric guitar. clarinet over the top is very cool. more electronic sounds start kicking in. this section definitely stood out to me first listen.
song goes back to piano and female vox, then progresses all the way into dark ambient.
September IV:Another great opening....more piano again...Daniel really get used a lot on this album which I heartily approve of. 1st half quite conventional....Garm + piano & drums. At about 2:10 onwards electric guitar and keyboard take over, seguing into some upbeat drumming. excellent avant-garde type section with the weird sounds overlayed. another favourite section.
England: vocal opening with piano. drums come in, seems like a slowish song. electric bass underneath is pants. piano continues wandering throughout. this is a real Garm-vocal orientated song, like February, but much slower. "A Blood Red Coooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Whittte to the boooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnne"
Island:
Interesting opening....percussion is unexpected, but works really well as the rhythm. Garms voice too is spot on again....random sea-side samples half-way though fit with the song name....acoustic guitar is lovely also. Quite a simple song...could have been shorter for what it is really, but it's still ear-pleasing; Garms harmonies especially. At around 3:40, song turns and becomes darker/less coherent. Very cool change.....the rest of the song continues in this eerie ambient/electronic vein. quite different from the relatively happy way the song starts.
Stone Angels:Organs aptly open the song (and stay present thereafter). A general air of dissonance/sadness created by fade in and outs of many different instruments. Continues quite a while like this with (someone?) reading the the poem Stone Angels by Keith Waldrop over the top. Organs provide the basis, and every other role is just free to appear and experiment whenever. Just a simple, but really neat idea. Very evocative for your imagination....reminds me a lot of Leb'Wohl by Neu!, though no-one will know what I'm talking about. The little cameos of clarinet are quite powerful. Generally this is a spacey epic which you can close your eyes to and drift into another world. There is certainly no bombast or dramatic climaxes, but that's fine with me...what it does...it does superbly
End thoughts:
Wow, really loved this. More than I thought I would. It definitely adds up to more than the sum of it's part. No-one of the songs are boring at all. Some are quite incidental or easy-listening, but it works in the context of the album. This album is not like Perdition City or Blood Inside....and it's still quite different than Shadows of The Sun (though it would be the most similar to WoTR on average). Like every Ulver album ever, it's different and powerful in its own way. The standout though really is Garm. He is on absolute
top form, the best he's ever been in. His clean vocals add so much emotion and their very unique tone has lost none of it's....errr....uniqueness. Overall this is a mature and beautiful record, my favourite of this year so far
Topic: Ulver-appreciation thread (Read 62788 times)
