Emiliana Torrini - Me And Armini (Rough Trade)
4/5
By: Alex Hibbert
BUY DOWNLOADConsidering the fact that she's written for Kylie and featured on one of the highest grossing trilogies in cinema history, Emiliana Torrini is something of an unknown quantity. An Icelandic ex-waitress whose fifth album, 2005's Fisherman's Woman, was an Arcadian paradise stuffed into forty minutes and proffered in a plastic box, here she swaps succinct for a panoramic landscape of sound.
At first its 'Arminis' more upbeat musings that draw your attention, 'Jungle Drum' surges forward and never seems to stop for breath, Bush's 'The Dreaming' trading the sparse wilderness of Oz for a ride around the Fjords with Girls Aloud. It's paired with 'Big Jumps,' a track so commercially viable the multicoloured silhouettes are literally dancing before our eyes as we write this. It's a coupling placed dead centre, meaning 'Arminis' crux offers the only real cohesion throughout the twelve tracks. 'Ha-Ha' plunges Torrini into a vat of acidic reverb, her wholesome nature mutated before our very ears, and in 'Gun' the transformations complete, 'a kiss that I swear will blow your mind,' she promises, Torrini becoming a balladeer for the homicidal.
'Birds' probably comes closest to recreating the sound of '05, a gentle lull of minor acoustics built slowly up into a downbeat trip-hop Zero 7 refrain. Torrini's voice shines a background of harp and bird song, even the 'oohs' depict resplendent beauty. We got it wrong, 'Beggars Prayer' is all the best bits of Fisherman's Woman in three minutes, a haunting recollection of matriarchal comfort stripped bare to lay Torrini's strengths for all to see. Unfortunately moments like this are few and far between, Me and Armini's insistence on foraging forwards meaning picturesque moments like these are soon lost.
Me and Armini offers a different experience to her previous work, it's almost like two, even three, different albums in one. Problem is we can't decide whether that's a strength or weakness, Torrini seems to be trying to amalgamate Love In The Time Of Science and Fisherman's Woman's best parts into something complete, but never truly manages it. Her talent is undeniable, and 'Armini' offers a sound introduction to an artist all should know, but hopefully this is just the starter and we won't have to wait another three years for the main.
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