TRACKLIST |
1. The Singer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3:31 2. Your Great Book . . . . . . . . . . . .4:18 3. The Girl I Don't Know . . . . . . . . .4:13 4. We Still Drink the Same Water . . . . .4:59 5. Catherine the Waitress. . . . . . . . .3:58 6. Legendary Afterparty. . . . . . . . . .6:00 7. Guilt by Association. . . . . . . . . .5:45 8. Start Wasting My Time . . . . . . . . .5:03 9. Letter From Alex. . . . . . . . . . . .4:30 10. Don't Let Me Fall in Love With You! . .5:15 11. You Should Have Seen Us . . . . . . . .4:46
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REVIEWThe Faroe Islands is certainly not known for its music (Eivor and Boys In A Band excepted), but then again neither are The Shetlands. Small remote groups of islands don't appear to be conducive to the creation of "scenes". Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that Teitur left his isolated homeland for Denmark aged 17.
Though he is an artist who has had critical acclaim elsewhere in the world – 'One And Only' appeared on the soundtrack to My Super Ex-Girlfriend, surprisingly – he is an unknown quantity to British audiences. An industry gig at the Danish Ambassador's residence is one such way to overcome this, or equally effective would be to produce a top draw UK debut. And he has.
Teitur's is a voice which portrays an innocence, but perhaps one which isn't really geniuine. The lyrics on The Singer are not the words of a modest man, but their simplicity and clarity make sure every word is understood and swallowed simply. "I always had the voice, now I am a singer / They wonder what I'm doing up there on the stage / They stare at my posture and say I speak so well" demonstrates this odd set of lyrics. They almost feel out of place, and baffle just as to whether they are sung seriously. Given everything which follows, it's a fair bet to say that we also have an artist who manages to see the amusing side of inherently unfunny things.
The Faroese language is one which suits the dreamy and languid style of Teitur to a tee – almost to the extent that it's a shame that everything on The Singer is in English. That's not to say he sings in a heavily accented style, far from it; indeed many of the characteristics of the Faroese language carry well into Teitur's anglophonic melodies but the shroud of mystery is one which a lot of artists benefit greatly from.
That said, The Singer shows that Teitur is not somebody who needs to mask a lack of quality with mystery. The Nordic issue is relevant too; throwing bands from a country or region in together is often a throwaway and thoughtless action, but Teitur's tones and textures are certainly similar to contemporaries like Ane Brun and Lykke Li. It is a type of music which reflects the nature of the geography of their surroundings; an openness and definition in sound which is entirely appropriate. I guess you could just call it reverb, though.
Traditional song patterns and structures are mostly avoided here, shunning convention for creativity and experimentation. Horns are used to great effect throughout, likewise the percussive instruments which manage to both brighten and darken the mood when required. Though 'Catherine The Waitress' is an upbeat and hopelessly hopeful love song, there are moments of almost overbearing darkness, too.
The emphasis on the ultra low, saddening strings on 'Guilty By Association' backs bleak lyrics such as "The killer is a cold blooded one, and he shoots cats just for fun" with a crushing, funereal atmosphere. It is an incremental increase in the gloom and blueness throughout the album as the earlier fleeting moments of sanguinity are long gone and forgotten once the heart of the record is entered. A creeping black shadow emerges seven songs in and leaves not until the final lingering melody has ceased to be. 'The Legendary Afterparty' chronicles a meeting with fallen (or more accurately falling) bluesman Chris Whitley, and certainly fits with the tone of the latter half despite its mildly joyous chorus.
An unknown quantity and a general unknown Teitur may have been before the release of The Singer, but there's not a second on here that suggests this should continue to be the case. It is by no means a flawless album – if anything, its lesser moments are a tad plain – but the criticisms are few and fairly insignificant, and are so emphatically outweighed by everything else.
Drowned in Sound (Rating: 8)SPOILER! |
CODE | X Lossless Decoder version 20090320 (105.1)
XLD extraction logfile from 2009-07-20 16:44:38 +0200
Teitur / The Singer
Used drive : MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846 (revision FM3J)
Use cdparanoia mode : YES (CDParanoia III 10.2 engine) Disable audio cache : OK for the drive with cache less than 2750KB Make use of C2 pointers : NO Read offset correction : 102 Max retry count : 100
TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 00:00:00 | 03:31:19 | 0 | 15843 2 | 03:31:19 | 04:17:47 | 15844 | 35165 3 | 07:48:66 | 04:13:32 | 35166 | 54172 4 | 12:02:23 | 04:58:43 | 54173 | 76565 5 | 17:00:66 | 03:58:05 | 76566 | 94420 6 | 20:58:71 | 05:59:51 | 94421 | 121396 7 | 26:58:47 | 05:44:39 | 121397 | 147235 8 | 32:43:11 | 05:03:24 | 147236 | 169984 9 | 37:46:35 | 04:29:47 | 169985 | 190206 10 | 42:16:07 | 05:15:17 | 190207 | 213848 11 | 47:31:24 | 04:46:08 | 213849 | 235306
List of alternate offset correction values # | Absolute | Relative | Confidence ------------------------------------------ 1 | 700 | 598 | 6
All Tracks Album gain : -7.06 dB Peak : 0.988892
Track 01 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/01 - The Singer.flac
Track gain : -7.00 dB Peak : 0.988831 CRC32 hash (test run) : D30E8835 CRC32 hash : D30E8835 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : F5EB91E8 AccurateRip signature : A499D161 ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 0DA1F482) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 02 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/02 - Your Great Book.flac
Track gain : -5.84 dB Peak : 0.988831 CRC32 hash (test run) : 7DECAFE0 CRC32 hash : 7DECAFE0 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 2EF2B412 AccurateRip signature : FA6A7055 ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: DD95B005) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 03 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/03 - The Girl I Don't Know.flac
Track gain : -6.33 dB Peak : 0.988831 CRC32 hash (test run) : 8D7F366D CRC32 hash : 8D7F366D CRC32 hash (skip zero) : BBA0856C AccurateRip signature : 606A024E ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 685718CB) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 04 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/04 - We Still Drink The Same Water.flac
Track gain : -7.51 dB Peak : 0.988770 CRC32 hash (test run) : BFBAFF67 CRC32 hash : BFBAFF67 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : CED28642 AccurateRip signature : BCC2CB4C ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 7760CDF4) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 05 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/05 - Catherine The Waitress.flac
Track gain : -8.28 dB Peak : 0.988831 CRC32 hash (test run) : 1E32C7EB CRC32 hash : 1E32C7EB CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 7542DDF1 AccurateRip signature : 56191351 ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: F737FDBE) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 06 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/06 - Legendary Afterparty.flac
Track gain : -7.41 dB Peak : 0.988861 CRC32 hash (test run) : F04DC57B CRC32 hash : F04DC57B CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 848CFE35 AccurateRip signature : 2B9E681B ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 5) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 6C15A017) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 07 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/07 - Guilt By Association.flac
Track gain : -6.77 dB Peak : 0.988770 CRC32 hash (test run) : 52363E32 CRC32 hash : 52363E32 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 132577F0 AccurateRip signature : 0282EB96 ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 2EE848D4) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 08 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/08 - Start Wasting My Time.flac
Track gain : -6.50 dB Peak : 0.988892 CRC32 hash (test run) : FAD2CF52 CRC32 hash : FAD2CF52 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 1BA88B10 AccurateRip signature : B4C7EC5C ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: FB8EAF3C) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 09 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/09 - Letter From Alex.flac
Track gain : -7.00 dB Peak : 0.988831 CRC32 hash (test run) : 8FFD1772 CRC32 hash : 8FFD1772 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : 7A14C7BA AccurateRip signature : 90159CA5 ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 5730ACBC) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 10 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/10 - Don't Let Me Fall In Love With You.flac
Track gain : -6.35 dB Peak : 0.988800 CRC32 hash (test run) : 1862F16A CRC32 hash : 1862F16A CRC32 hash (skip zero) : A59EFE92 AccurateRip signature : 0F943237 ->Accurately ripped! (confidence 6) (matched with the different offset correction value; calculated using an additional offset of 598; the signature after correction is: 2428FCAA) Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
Track 11 Filename : /Applications/XLD/CDRip/11 - You Should Have Seen Us.flac
Track gain : -5.36 dB Peak : 0.988739 CRC32 hash (test run) : 15CD10D3 CRC32 hash : 15CD10D3 CRC32 hash (skip zero) : B9E178B4 AccurateRip signature : 2B4515C1 ->Rip may not be accurate. Statistics Read error : 0 Skipped (treated as error) : 0 Edge jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Atom jitter error (maybe fixed) : 0 Drift error (maybe fixed) : 0 Dropped bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Duplicated bytes error (maybe fixed) : 0 Inconsistency in error sectors : 0
No errors occurred
End of status report |
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