PRICE:
$15.50
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
Don't Want To Sleep
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
MORR 105CD MORR 105CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/21/2011

This is the second studio-length album from FM Belfast. For the past four years, this Icelandic electro-pop group have been perfecting the art of reading an audience and connecting with it, using their steadily-growing skills to hone a music that catches easily, yet runs deep; an art of performing that can -- and usually does -- induce unique and euphoric states in large crowds of people, or just in your headphones. It is harsh and technical, warm and embracing and organic, thoughtful and giddy and cool and inclusive. Those who have ever seen them perform or listened to their debut, How To Make Friends (KRCD 012CD/ KRLP 012LP), can and will verify this. Don't Want To Sleep is a logical conclusion to two years of making friends and taking in experiences and sounds and adventure. It is also a worthy successor to their debut, a natural progression that retains its predecessor's spirit and builds upon it while exploring new territories. The songs retain the bouncy and joyful spirit of How To Make Friends, yet veer off into territories that the band have hitherto left unexplored. There are slow songs and introspective ones; calm, drifting meditations mixed with calls to arms and potential dancefloor workouts. Tracks like the beautiful "Noise" and "We Fall" depict serene dreamscapes that still burst with power and rhythm. The understated "Winter," with its anxious bite and underlying warmth, captures the essence of the overpowering Icelandic winter in its suffocating embrace. "Vertigo" entices and enthralls and "American" bops, gallops and is impossible not to sing along to. It is rare that an album will make you want to dance while possessing the ability to lull you to sleep (you'll have dreams of dancing). Don't Want To Sleep is such an album, a friend in early morning and late at night. The songs were written and recorded by FM Belfast (guests include Retro Stefson's Unnsteinn Manúel, Borko's Borko and mighty trumpeter Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson), produced and recorded by Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson and mixed by Kristinn Sturluson, Gunnar Örn Tynes and Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson. Helmut Erler mastered the thing at Dubplates & Mastering, and the cover was designed by the band and Bobby Breiðholt.