Search - Mum :: Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know

Múm's only poor album to date

Null | 02/01/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I find múm to be really one of the best bands that's been out there this last decade. Unfortunately every great band puts out the eventual album that just falls flat and on this their 6th album, they finally did just that. As noted by the previous reviewer Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir leaving the band probably had a lot to do with it, but she left prior to Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy, which while having an evolved sound was still is an epic album.



Unfortunately, with Sing Along, the sound didn't evolve, in fact it completely de-evolved. Unlike all their previous work which featured off-beat timing driven primarily by electronic percussion, Sing Along has very conventional timing driven by acoustic guitar. While some decent orchestral and electronic harmonies are layered on, the effect of switching to traditional timing is like knocking out the bottom card in the pyramid and Sing Along's works sound like mediocre folk songs with some harmonies just heaped on. Similarly the lyrics are far more direct that many previous albums; múm has always been a master of less is more, and while songs like Poison Ivy's "Blessed Brambles", or Finally We are No One's "We Have a Map of a Plane" are simply delightful in their minimal but beautiful lyrics, the lyrics on Sing Along (for example "If I Were a Fish") sound like those any hack folk singer could come up with when they first pick up their guitar.



Overall, múm is an amazing band and their other albums are must-haves. Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know, is the one glaring exception."