- Purchase a product from the Music Store sold by Amazon.co.uk and receive £1 to use on an album download in our MP3 Store. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Icelandic-Italian singer Emiliana Torrini has achieved much, but gained comparatively little, off the back of a career that has blossomed in a nook out of the mainstream's line-of-sight for over a decade. She's been a voice for hire for dance acts aplenty (Paul Oakenfold, Thievery Corporation), was the lungs behind the sky-reaching "Gollum's Song" in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and co-wrote Kylie's weightless, post-minimalist gloss-pop classic "Slow"--endeavours that really should have made her a household name by now. Heading in a different direction her last solo album, 2005's Fisherman's Woman, was a pristine master-class in hushed exchanges, but bewilderingly also fell under the radar. With Me & Armini though you get the feeling that Emiliana Torrini might be a name that begins to stick from hereon in. Easily her most cohesive and pressing work yet, she evokes the delicious and warm-hearted certainty of Feist, sealed with the glistening inflections of her Icelandic home-tongue, like a homespun and less-eccentric Bjork. Her impressive range is showcased here like never before, from the guttural PJ-Harvey-isms of "Gun" to the Winehouse jazz of "Heard It All Before", bold Gwen Steffani-esque colours of title track "Me & Armini", right down to the Beth Orton wispiness of "Beggars Prayer". --James Berry
Review
Is it possible that Iceland's entire pop industry is actually a brilliant scam by their tourist board? Put on records by Sigur Ros, early Bjork or Emiliana Torrini - with their gleaming intelligence, playful strangeness and raptures in the face of nature - and it's all you can do not to leap into the Atlantic and start swimming north west immediately.
This third record by Emiliana Torrini (best known here for writing one of Kylie Minogue's best and most unusual songs, Slow) is no exception. On first landing, the simple, stripped down instrumentation - often little more than Torrini's crystalline voice, a guitar and understated keyboards - seem perhaps a little too languid and sparse, even a little samey. But an extended stay reveals sharp jolts of beauty, delicate little flourishes and unexpected oddities hidden in the apparently simple song structures.
Just listen to the way the gentle ska skip of Heard It All Before gradually picks up pace, ending in a feverish strum that perfectly replicates the lyrical self-flaggelation. Or how the acoustic, pastoral Birds literally takes flight at its end, carried aloft on a bank of gorgeously multitracked harmonies. Most unusually of all, listen to Dead Duck which is less a song than a reverie, all tricksy guitar motifs lost in softly buzzing synths, sounding much like criminally neglected nineties band Butterfly Child.
Not that Torrini can't do direct. Opener Fireheads may be a little too close to Jack Johnson cosiness to really impress, but the reggae-tinged single Me And Armini is full of melancholy, sad-eyed charm and Big Jumps is a warm, huggable kitten of a song. You'll want to revisit them repeatedly, finding something new each time.
Sometimes love is like a bomb exploding: sudden and dramatic, it leaves you reeling. But sometimes it creeps up as stealthily as spring, slowly warming your bones. These are the loves that tend to last, and Me And Armini is one of them. --Jaime Gill
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better and Better!,
By
This review is from: Me And Armini (Audio CD)
This review is biased - I'm already a fan. However, nothing, even my predisposition to enjoy anything new from Emiliana Torrini, could have prepared me for this astonishing album. 'Love In the Time of Science' was a great album, with Roland Orzabal's distinctive touch very evident without distracting from the songs or from Emiliana's vocals. 'Fisherman's Woman' was a bold departure from the multi-layered production of the previous album and felt much more 'personal', simple and with some beautiful songs and vocals, along with equally beautiful instrumentation courtesy of Dan Carey. 'Me & Armini' is yet another departure, and takes Emiliana into another league entirely. As a musician myself, I'm always on the lookout for songs and artists that surprise me. This album is packed full of moments of inspired performance, creativity and 'surprises' whilst still feeling very much an Emiliana Torrini album. No two tracks are the same, but Emiliana's vocals and lyrics run through it like a thread, stitching it all together. It is tempting to over-use words such as 'stunning' 'extraordinary' 'breathtaking to try and describe this album. Instead, just take my advice: if you really love music, buy this album - you won't be disappointed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Genre Striding Album,
By
This review is from: Me And Armini (Audio CD)
This is Emiliana Torrini's 6th album although only two were released outside Iceland. Me and Armini really bridges the gap between them with some great pop numbers and some low key acoustic tracks too. Newer to the mix is the more rockier edge in places though and it suits her voice and style.
"Big Jumps" was a great choice as a single and reminds me of summer time fun (it also reminds me of "Unemployed in Summertime" however there's absolutely genius in "Jungle Drum" which sounds like a 1960's rock anthem and will be the next single. Its very catchy. Acoustic lovers will enjoy "Bleeder", "Hold Heart" and personal favourite "Beggar's Prayer" which has a beautiful vocal section in the middle with just humming which effects you in a brilliant way. "Gun" shows off a more edgy side to Emiliana we've not seen for a long time as its full of atmosphere and "Ha Ha" is a darker shade of Torrini too. "Dead Duck" is a fantastic piece of studio trickery as it basically goes through all the album sounds in one song. I would recommend this to any Torrini fan no matter which album of hers you preferred and also to anyone who likes their pop a little more involved than the usual chart toppers.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Without you I would never rise,
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Me And Armini (Audio CD)
Emiliana Torrini's last album was all wistful folk. Before that, it was all equally wistful electronic pop and the creepily pretty closing song to "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."
But before all that, she dabbled happily in everything from jazz to J-pop, raw-throated indie-rock to the blues -- and she did a pretty good job at all of them. And while her fifth album "Me and Armini" doesn't quite explore EVERYTHING she's done before, Torrini slips back comfortably into some of the musical niches she has already carved. Her delicate pop is flavoured by tinges of other styles and genres, and sometimes those other sounds (as in "Gun") overwhelm it completely. "Somebody's got a long way to go/You're not sitting by the phone no more... Mmm, are we going crazy?/It's not fair to say we wasted time/In my view we just used it all up..." Torrini sings wistfully over a mellow folk-guitar. But she tries a totally different approach to a no-letting-go-love in the titular track -- it's an upbeat jazzy song with a vaguely stalkerish sound ("Some people think that/I'm heading for a meltdown... This I know/she doesn't love you like I do/yes it's clear/she'll never love you like me..."). A number of these songs stem musically from the bittersweet folk of her last album "Fisherman's Woman" -- the haunting seaside sound of "Birds," the prettily malicious "Ha Ha," and a string of low-key, folky melodies that rely mostly on Torrini's vocals and a guitar. But she mixes up the sound a little -- some of these melodies end with a thin mat of woobly synth, and the acoustic pop number "Big Jumps" is anything but wistful and low-key. It's all sunny joyousness and fun ("Go on, make some BIG JUMPS, BIG JUMPS/you afraid to break some bones?"). And then there are some songs that, stylistically speaking, belong to "Me and Armini" alone. These tend to be a bit darker -- there's the rhythmic organ-keyboard of "Heard It All Before," and the squiggling, fast-paced rocker "Jungle Drum" ("Hey, read my lips/cause all they say is kiss kiss kiss kiss!/No one ever stops/my hands are in the air/yes I'm in love!"). And "Gun" is a masterpiece of quietly distorted guitar, with Torrini murmuring a tale of despair, infidelity and gleeful murder of a wife's lover. Musically, Emiliana Torrini doesn't really try anything new in "Me and Armini," because she's dabbled in almost every kind of pop except symphonic metal (and for all I know she's tried that too). But she does polish up the whole electro/jazz/pop sound to near-perfection while still blending it with folky acoustics, and takes a few musical risks as well. Not that I'm complaining, because pretty much all of those risks pay off and leave you awaiting more. Acoustic guitar takes center stage in this album, strumming gently like a forest creek under Torrini's vocals, with a few exceptions like the electric riffs in "Jungle Drum" and "Gun." And Torrini drapes those deceptively simple-sounding guitar melodies in expansive extras -- jazzy drums, patches of heavy distortion, swathes of shimmering synth, piano and soundclips of tinkly windchimes. One of the most memorable: "Heard It All Before's" thumping organ-keyboard melody getting swallowed by clashing drums and ghostly riffs. Torrini's girlish, chilly elfin vocals are often compared to Bjork, but she frankly sounds a lot more innocent and emotional. And her songs are nice as well, tending to focus on the mysteries and pain of romantic love, and even when she sings "ha... ha... ha.... hear me laughin'" at a former lover's trouble, she sounds mournful. But she can turn on the joy just as quickly with happy bouncy calls of, "Hey there sunshine lift my heart/I know life is long but it goes so fast/I love you never feeling old/You never bought the rubbish that they sold!" With, I might add, the occasional foray into creepyville -- that gleeful front-row seat to manslaughter and the weird obsession with Armini are chilling at times, no matter how pretty her voice is ("Stop your shaking, sweating, whining and regretting/You're making a scene that is going to get you caught..."). "Me and Armini" allows Emiliana Torrini to expand her folk sound and polish it to a jewel-like hue, with some darker facets and delightfully sweet love songs. Definitely a good listen.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
