Love In The Time of Science by Emiliana Torrini
I discovered the music of Emiliana Torrini by accident. I was looking for places to go when a friend was in town and looked at what bands were playing at local clubs. Somehow, that led me to find a description of Emiliana Torrini. The description I found contained one of those totally useless descriptions that just throw out the names of three or four pop artists. She was compared to Bjork and Kate Bush. Everyone compares female singers to Bjork and Kate Bush when they cannot figure out how to describe them. But hey… somehow they got my attention. I said to myself, “Nobody really sounds like Bjork.” On a whim, I checked to see if my local public library had any discs by Torrini and, in fact, they did!
Despite the dubious path that lead me to her music, I don’t regret listening to the disc. Torrini does in fact sound a bit like Bjork and it is no wonder as they are both Icelandic.
The title of the album I listened to, “Love in the Time of Science” was interesting. The opening track was short but incredible. A+ for first impressions. The rest of the album is good and some tracks are better than good. Her music is smooth and interesting. Some of the instrumentals remind me of The Flaming Lips (just a bit, as on the opening of the track “Baby Blue”). There are a lot of influences that come out in this album. Some tracks reminded me of something that could be a theme to a Bond tune (just a bit). Some reminded me of the band Red Delicious.
This music is definitely interesting and just the right mix of “different enough” and “similar enough.” The titles of the tracks really made an impression on me too:
- Sea People
- To Be Free
- Wednesday’s Child
- Baby Blue
- Dead Things
- Unemployed in Summertime
- Easy
- Fingertips
- Telepathy
- Tuna Fish
- Summerbreeze
I know a few consultants besides myself who aspire to be Unemployed in Summertime. And sandwiching Dead Things between that track and Baby Blue was intriguing…. perhaps more so in title than in the actuality of the music.
I’ll leave you with a quote from the lyrics: “Sad things have to happen… sometimes.” (followed by the sound of a telephone/computer like noise)
Robosapien quotes