- Label: 'One Little Indian'
- Genre: 'Folk'
- Release Date: '4th February 2013'- Catalogue No: 'TPLP1152'
Our Rating:
Some of the most interesting female singers around have distinctive and, many would say, weird voices. Prime examples are folk maidens like Vashti Bunyan, Josephine Foster and Joanna Newsom.
Ólöf Arnalds can be safely added to this list and , as she is from Iceland, she is destined to be forever likened to Björk; all the more so because her elfish compatriot sang on the track Surrender from the 2010 Innundir Skinni album and has publicly praised Arnalds for qualities that lie "somewhere between a child and an old woman".
I think what Björk meant by this is that Arnalds possesses a freshness, bordering on naivety, alongside a sense of wisdom and authority; in other words hers are songs of innocence and experience.
The trilling, skipping quality to her heavily accented vocals only adds to the magical effect.
This is her third album and the first one to be sung entirely in English. The language might be familiar but it's still hard to pinpoint what the songs are about. They have the quality of melancholy folk ballads yet focus on fleeting moods and feelings rather than tell stories.
Arnalds is a classically trained violinist but the arrangements here are more folky, being restricted to the acoustic guitar, piano and charango lute, an instrument mainly played in Andean music that resembles a toy guitar.
This minimalist backing gives space for her voice which is by far the most striking 'instrument' on the record. The effect is enhanced by being multi-tracked voice on songs such as German Fields, A Little Grim & Numbers And Names.
It all makes for a rich and truly captivating sound full of purity and delicacy.
