It’s Saturday night and all is well with the world. Not. Donald is sat in the bath figuring out how to invade Greenland and put tariffs on the rest of the world while he’s at it and the mullahs prepare to execute thousands more. Just another crazy day and we’re only 17 days into the year.
And on top of that Manchester United easily beat Manchester City in the shock of the day.
I feel the urge to chill out and how better than with Icelandic indie band YouYou which returns after a six year absence with a new single, ‘Towns’. The track features Biggi Nielsen, a veteran drummer of the Icelandic music scene.
Biggi’s mantra is to finish your songs before making new ones and he’s the one responsible for rescuing this one from the archives.
There’s something about lap steel guitar, provided here by Sigurgeir Sigmundsson of Icelandic country band Klaufar, which dominates the song. It makes such an unusual noise that, especially when it blends with other guitars, can sound out of tune and the opening bars threw me a little.
But once the main theme gets going it gels perfectly with the vocal and induces a soporific effect which Biggie complements with some deft brush and snare work.
The lyric concerns a ‘hazy town’ that “turned me down” so that the singer’s “leavin’” (more likely on a jet ski than a jet plane) and Iceland has numerous examples of those towns. I’m thinking of a place that has everything you could think of but only one example of each – general store, supermarket, church, police station, cafe/B&B, bar and so on.
My favourite was Selfoss although it’s probably much larger now than when I knew it, what with the huge increase in tourism ‘n all.
I’m not sure what Youyou are getting at with this song but if I lived in one of those towns, which probably have more airbnbs than indigenous habitations by now, I’d be concerned for how that pans out in the future.
But there is no discernible element of malice in the song; in fact it is far more of a feel good one that speaks for the laid back nature of life in semi rural parts of the country.
Continues after the Spotify link
Musicians:
Snorri Gunnarsson – Vocals, guitar
Guðmundur Annas Árnason – Vocals, piano
Valur Freyr Einarsson – Guitar
Kristinn Jón Arnarson – Spiritual guidance
Biggi Nielsen – Drums
Sigurgeir Sigmundsson – Lap steel
Friðrik G. Sturluson – Bass
Find them on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheYouYouBand/
Bandcamp: https://youyouband.bandcamp.com/music
