‘Hamartia’ ancient Greek word translated as ‘error of judgement’ or ‘moral mistake’, and this theme provides the foundations of the second album from Eyes of a Blue Dog. Ostensibly, it’s a concept album about sin and flaw, and is preoccupied with imagery of hedonism, morality, debauchery and pleasure.
Opener ‘Spin Me’ is a hypnotic, slow-burning, soft-focus swirl of a tune which sets the tone, both musically and lyrically, for this smooth, shimmering album. Sonically, there’s a supple, softly orchestral feel as synths and strings and Rory Simmons’ distinctive trumpet drape themselves over laid-back beats. There’s a lot of layering and a lot of detail here.
Singer Elisabeth Nygaard embodies the spirit of the themes, the lyrics brimming with breathy desire and dewy-eyed reflections. Bursting with romantic ideals and hearts that flutter and soar, notions of running away and playing with fire, ‘I’m warm inside, cold all over’, she sings over a backdrop of dreamy electronica that slowly melts and floats into smooth jazz.
|
‘I am your desire / I’m yours within my mind… My mind is open to stories / and I am best while on my knees… I can feed your dirty mind’, she sings seductively on ‘Desire’.
After a while, with all of her protestations that the object of her desire doesn’t want her on his mind, her agonisations that love is like a drug, her unrequited fantasy scenes and the endless longings, you start to feel she’s more of a pain in the arse than someone you’d want to become romantically involved with. Coupled with the chin-stroking mellowness of the easy listening backdrops which noodle and drift without really achieving anything, it all gets a little tiresome. An album perhaps best consumed in small doses.
Eyes of a Blue Dog Online
|
