Mum: Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy

Label: Fat Cat

Album number four for Iceland’s Múm, returning the band to two of its founding members. And while you’d think that the loss of Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir’s distinctive vocals might shift the group into previously unheard stylistic directions, the reverse has ended up being true; this feels much closer to Finally We Are No One’s blend of digital hum and organic texture than the swaying, almost nautical feel of 2004’s Summer Make Good. Horns and massed vocals drift in and out of one another’s channel on “These Eyes Are Berries”; the opening of “Marmalade Fires” matches glitch beats to tenderly played strings before being swallowed by a massing harmony; and “I Was Her Horse” could be taken from the soundtrack of a surreal silent film. An unexpectedly – and pleasantly – focused work. (Tobias)