On Konkylie, When Saints Go Machine have spread their wings and taken on a more pathos-filled approach. Actually, you'd be surprised to know an album so ethereal has been created by a band, which has existed in Copenhagen for the entirety of its life. There isn't as much dark alleyways to this, as there are wide-open, windswept plains.
Nikolaj Vonsild's very characteristic voice still anchors the band's sound. Vonsild has been lauded as a second coming of Antony Hegarty, and while his vocals are truly very beautiful, and very instrumental to the band, it is also true that he is at times as unintelligible as Thom Yorke. That's a bit of a shame, and at times he, and his peculiar melodies, really drowns in the seas of swooning synths and, sorry, general mess on Konkylie. He is very alone in doing the vocal work for the band, and it seems the logical solution to the lack of backing vocals has been to let tremulous synths follow closely his very step. I don't think that's a good idea, as it makes him drown even more.
As such, the two tracks that stand out immediately on the album are the intense 'Church And Law', as well as the stunning closer 'Add Ends', with its plucking harps and cellos. What ties these two tracks together is the fact that Vonsild is positioned crystal clearly in the mix - he rises from the sea of synthesizers that otherwise envelop and almost drown his delicate voice, and croons above a tightly cut, no-frills backdrop.
Elsewhere, 'On The Move' is very pretty, while 'Whoever Made You Stand So Still' sounds like a clash between Stravinsky and the soundtrack to Mulan. Pretty interesting, but also pretty awkward when it segues abruptly into 'Terminal One', one of the few tunes that could be a holdover from the debut album. Same goes for lead single 'Kelly', which is very catchy, and these two up-beat tunes add some much needed zest to the album.
But getting to 'Kelly', my gosh! After early highlight 'Church And Law', we are drawn through a full four tracks that range from borderline anonymous to pretty annoying. This is where the aforementioned obscurity and clutter really becomes a problem. There is an abundance of talent and potential in this material, but one could really have wished for it to be cut more sharply. Some of it really drowns in a jumble of high-pitched sounds and coos, and there isn't enough of a backbone - be it a melody or a beat or even a less-is-more sort of minimalism - to keep everything in place. A high-pitched voice doesn't need high-pitched sine synths to go with it - it needs something deeper, and when the band finally tries something deep - on 'Jets' - they manage to create the albums most confusing and irrelevant tune anyway.
I do however concede that this part of the album is probably the hardest to grasp initially, and I might be premature in my skepticism on the album as a whole. I mean, considering how long time it took me to be won over by Ten Makes A Face, which is a million times more accessible than this. I just had expected something more mind-blowing than this, honestly.
