Search - Borko :: Celebrating Life

Continental Love

bimwa | Australia | 07/02/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Borko is the alias of Icelandic musician Bjorn Kristiansson, and this is his first album, following on from 2001's 'Trees & Limbo' EP. I came to this album via hearing the opening track 'Continental Love' on the radio. It is a stunning piece, mostly instrumental, adding layer upon layer (all manner of guitars, synths, tuned percussion, horns and finally some great drums) to one repeated phrase to create quite a hypnotic and beautiful effect.



If the following seven tracks were anywhere near as brilliant I don't think I'd hesitate giving the album 5 stars. However what we have is in fact a very patchy affair, without too much going for it beyond the opener.



Of course it's not all bad. Second track 'Spoonstabber' follows on well, a song not dissimilar to the sound of Radiohead's 'Ok Computer' with a stark acoustic guitar verse, and a great lift to the chorus, signalled by slide guitar and trumpet. Comparisons to Radiohead are dangerous, however, because it just highlights how bland the vocals are compared to someone like Thom Yorke's.



Track 3 'Shoo Ba Ba' is where the album starts going quite sour. For one thing, the lyrical content consists of the song title repeated over and over in a completely tuneless and rhythmically irrelevant way. Aside from that, the music is rather boring too, a similar layered treatment as on the opening track but without the musical ideas to back it up.



From there, things are ok but there's not too much to write home about. Notably bad though is the ridiculously titled 'Dingdong Kingdom', which begins with a cool instrumental buildup, but then he starts singing... and the lyrics are terrible, opening, believe it or not, with "Hello, is it me you're looking for?" (I think even Lionel Richie would shudder). On the upside, it's probably worth mentioning the album closer 'Hondo & Borko', for its nice little gear shift from happy little pop tune to rocky Weezer-style singalong.



So I'm going to be generous and give the album 3 stars, but it's pretty much all just for 'Continental Love'. Most of the album feels a bit like filler really, but I suppose it could be viewed as interesting when compared to most pop music these days."