8 December 2008
www.gculture.co.uk
Mind The Sun Sinks In The Sea, based on and inspired by ‘Nu hverfur sol I haf', a poem by Icelandic author and poet Sigurbjorn Einarsson, is a bolder, Bjork-esque piece; all eccentric embrace of vowels and consonants, draped and sliding from the dependable if somewhat static chords, each of which is mournfully bridged by lonely half-notes. Grounded by an organ underneath the track, the song flowers into an expansive, glorious sound.
Packing the emotional weight of acoustic folk beneath layers of fragile production is challenging. It can and the album does - accumulate a static gravitas that only the truly zen could appreciate in one go; taken piece by piece, Polar Bear is a generous, meditative work. It's ghost-folk, and a great album to soundtrack your first snowstorm. Elizabeth Dodd
Polar Bear does not have the same pulse as Sigur Ros, nor the honed insanity of Bjork; crucially, it doesn't need to - we don't discard the magnificent US-based band TV On The Radio for not sounding more like Chuck Berry. Sleepingdog succeeds where it catches the free-association noises the mind grafts into sense if you fall asleep with the window open. It's understated and delicate, drifting from juxtaposed vocals to tick along with rhythmic pickstrumming on the Joan Baez-esque When It Lies, with the occasional cranky- melancholy surf note echoing out.
© GCulture 2008
Men’s Luxury Magazine
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