A lot of people were skeptical when Søren Huss reappeared on the big stage. After his original outfit Saybia slowly disappearing onto the happy hunting grounds of stranded whine rock outfits, and his wife tragically deceasing in a traffic accident, I guess most expected an unbearably whimpering album. In stead, Huss managed to pretty successfully channel his heavy emotions into a beautiful record. Not an album to hear time and time again, but a fine piece of earnest grief. For the first time in his recording career singing in his native tongue, Huss' voice and lyrics are the absolute centerpieces of this downright beautiful album, culminating in the cathartic and very powerful 'Et Hav Af Udstrakte Hænder' and the absolutely tear-jerking closer, 'Tak For Dansen'.
Gemini is truly one of the most uplifting albums I've familiarized myself with this past year. It's one of those albums you put on, and then your just drift away to somewhere really blissful - one of the albums where the tunes just seem to segue into each other, and you don't really spend all your time identifying them and analyzing them and attributing certain qualities or characteristics to them. Gemini is the sound of summer, of frolicsome and carefree youths chilling in the park. It's decidedly chillwave, but with a distinct dream-pop tinge, and a production very distant from lo-fi imperfection. Highlights are hard to point out, but the opening pair of 'Live In Dreams' and 'Summer Holiday' are very enjoyable, along with 'Our Composition Book' further down the tracklist.
If you wanted to, you could easily focus on all the things The King of Limbs isn't. It isn't a parade of exorbitant flowers like In Rainbows, it isn't a fist in the face of dystopia and gloom like OK Computer and Amnesiac, and it isn't a daring left turn like Kid A was. In the Radiohead discography, this might end up as the quiet, mellow kid in the back, being none the less talented than its more outwardly siblings. However, after you've realized this album never explodes, never bursts with energy, never concludes anything, you begin to recognize what a bloody fine piece of musicianship this is. Tied together by Colin Greenwood's amazing work on his bass, The King of Limbs nervously skips along, constantly threatening to trip and fall in its intricate and complex structures, especially through the first half with 'Bloom', 'Morning Mr Magpie' and 'Feral' being madly polyrhythmic. Thom Yorke comes more to the fore on the album's key tracks, 'Lotus Flower' and the Pyramid Song-like 'Codex'. A very different, but awkwardly beautiful album.
I still very clearly remember when I first became acquainted with Leslie Feist. It was driving our camper along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, on a very rainy day a few years ago. It took me some time to finally get a hold of her music, but after having been enchanted by The Reminder early this winter, I was completely blown over by Let It Die this spring (that's why both are listed). I can hardly picture an album more suitable for an evening with candlelights and sweet lovemaking than Let It Die. I mean, just listen to tunes like 'One Evening' and 'Leisure Suite'! On this album, Feist is also at times deliciously funky on 'When I Was A Young Girl', openly in love on 'Inside And Out' and obviously brokenhearted on 'Let It Die'. The Reminder is less highlightful, except for obvious standout '1234', but still a thoroughly decent crossbreed of jazz, folk and indie, shrouded in Leslie Feist's beautiful voice.
I feel so sorry for all the fucktards who fell off the cart with Humbug, and who still think Alex Turner's lyrics are primarily about going out in Sheffield. They're not. While still being a hopeless romantic, Turner has at 25 become a guy whose quotes you want hanging on your wall, or featuring in your Facebook status. That's especially true for the back end of Suck It And See, with the three utterly exquisite tracks 'Love Is A Laserquest', 'Suck It And See' and 'That's Where You're Wrong'. These three tunes are instrumental in elevating Suck It And See to somewhere near the quality of Arctic Monkeys' three previous studio albums, because admittedly, there are dips in quality here. There usually are on a 12-track album, and boy don't I understand what the need for tunes like 'Reckless Serenade' and 'Piledriver Waltz' on this album was. Balancing between sixties swag and occasional garage and even heavy-inspired rock-outs, Suck It And See is nonetheless an absolutely acceptable fourth album by a band rapidly carving out their very own spot in UK indie history.
