Jockey Slut magazine May 2002

Review by Toby Manning.



múm - Finally we are no one (FatCat)

While we're enjoying the benefits of global warming with summer arriving three months early, let's hope Iceland doesn't get swept away when the polar ice caps melt. Reykjavik's múm's second album expands on their fine debut "Yesterday was dramatic, today is ok", the addition of twin sisters Kristín Anna and Gyda Valtýsdóttir on keyboards and cello adding considerably to múm's musical - and physical - beauty. Boards of Canada once envisaged a folk-tinged electronica - whistles, dulcimers and disembodied female voices floating in wide open electronic spaces. múm have taken that idea rather more literally than the Boards themselves, forging a folktronica indie fans can love. In fact, the twins are former Belle & Sebastian cover stars, and unsurprisingly there's a flirtation with feyness - not all will warm up to the coy vocal on the otherwise stunning single "green grass of tunnel". If you cast aside your cynicism, this study in pastoral wistfullness, wide-eyed nostalgia and glacial gorgeousness is our premature summer's perfect accompaniment.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.



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