Feels Like Sugar, Tastes Like Snow--Hjaltalin's Orchestral Pop on Terminal

I just finished listening to this very interesting album from Iceland. They are not the easiest group to characterize, but the easiest and broadest description is Orchestral Pop Music. I mean, literally, this album is being performed with accompanied by an orchestra. Hjaltalin apparently are an immensely popular band in their native Iceland and this album rose to the top of their music charts. They are never to be confused with a band like Sigur Ros however. Their game is entirely different.

I was lonely, drinking coffee....

I can't honestly say that I haven't heard this before. It is all quite familiar, yet very distinct and quirky. But they seem to be the only group doing this now. The songs are in different styles and the arrangements are quite creative and not imitative. At times I feel that I am listening to a Broadway musical written by Kafka, and at other points I am hearing a dark Scott Walker tune. Or Motown. Or Nick Drake. Or John Cale's Paris 1919. Or Bjork. Or Disco. Or Burt Bacharach. Or The Delgados. Or Pulp. Or The Fifth Dimension. Or Love. But whatever style they attempt, they pull them off spectacularly. So without further ado, let me introduce you to the band.

Hogni Egilsson is on lead vocals and guitar. Sidriður Thorlacius is also a vocalist. Axel Haraldsson is on drums and percussion and Guðmundur Oskar is on Bass. Hjortur Ingvi Johannsson is on keyboards and Rebekka Bryndis Bjornsdottir is on Bassoon and percussion. Viktor Orri Arnason plays violin. Oh, and also
there is a big fat symphonic orchestra and choir for good measure. There must have been a pretty huge recording budget for Terminal. Perhaps they got a grant from the government before the unfortunate financial collapse.

This album certainly may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am a little surprised that there isn't more chatter about this recording. It's a really ambitious work of art. Terminal won album of the year for 2010 at the Icelandic Music awards. I guess it takes a tour with Radiohead to convince the rest of the World. I know a lot of Americans don't want to hear other languages in music so the fact that the vocals are in English might help give them a bump.

I've only listened to this album once and there are so many nuances to this recording. But this recording was so interesting to me that I had to say something about it immediately. The album begins with Suitcase Man, which is right out of the Scott Walker pantheon. Then you go into the soul balladry of Sweet Impressions.
Then you have the magnificent 60's Broadwayesque Bacharach duet Feels Like Sugar. But with dark baffling lyrics.

Peaceful mind, with invisible scars that won't heal.
Dead alive, butterflies in my eye
Howling hearts, quiet enemies.
Right or wrong, gravity holds,
It holds me down.




Songs From Incidental music reminds me of the Nick Drake tune Day is Done from his Five Leaves Left album. And on the very same album you also have the ebullient disco tune Water Poured Into Wine. Amazing. Iceland seems to be the sort of place where people don't care about these things, which I admire a lot. Maybe on their next album Hjaltalin will have Polkas, or Gangster Rap on it. Your kid sister plays the bassoon at the Conservatory? Tell her to come join our band!

Sigridur has a magnificent voice. When you hear her soulful vocals on 7 years you will be hooked. She is going to be a huge star. Well she's a star already--we just don't know it yet. Anyway, Terminal is an album I would highly recommend to any fan of challenging interesting music. Sometimes you can get a little jaded with the same old same old, and this album has definitely turned out to be an eye opener for me. Oh well, I guess I'll have to pick up their first long player Sleepdrunk Sessions now.