Download: Múm – “Sing Along”

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(from Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know, out now on Morr Music)

Múm have always maintained a joyous, childlike quality despite the sophistication of their music, which taps into that sense of wonder that characterizes the greatest of Walt Disney’s creations.  It’s glitchtronica for the miniatures inside a snow globe to groove along with!  On Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know, the Icelandic troupe continues to craft songs that capture the wide-eyed hopefulness of youth while displaying an impressive proficiency for intricate rhythms and grandiose arrangements.  The album exists in a perpetual winter, evoking the awe of beholding snow-capped mountains for the first time.  Swelling strings, delicately picked classical guitars, and jovial glockenspiel loops lie atop a foundation of shuffling beats produced both acoustically and electronically.  Their multi-tracked harmonies could be easily mistaken for door-to-door carolers fiending for a fix of figgy pudding.  The melodies somehow sound both wistful and cinematic, intimate moments blown up to epic proportions by Múm’s penchant for rousing musical backdrops, sometimes (as with the song “Show Me”) pairing dense walls of vocal harmonies with skittering drums to create a majestic splendor.  And the title track sounds like the theme to The Nutcracker on steroids, augmented by fuzzed-out guitars, relentless drum-machine blips, and blissful staccatos.  At first listen, you may not know the songs on Sing Along, but you’ll recognize the familiar feeling of curling up next to the fireplace hoping that Santa doesn’t suffer first-degree burns.

-Amorn Bholsangngam