Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK - Igloo Magazine's REVIEW 2005-12-01 ...

Igloo Magazine's REVIEW 2005-12-01 Review by: R_Garcia, Igloo Magazine (www.igloomag.com)
(10.09.05) I will begin this review with a paraphrase from the included one-sheet: "This album was recorded very shortly after me and Gunni met Kristin and Gyda and became a four people band... It was originally released on an Icelandic label called Thule but early on a number of disputes came up which ended up dragging on for many years... We have the rights for the record back now and are really happy to be re-releasing it on our friends label where it seems to fit in like home."

If not for that disclaimer, one might take this re-release as new compositions from Múm (which I accidentally did when I tossed the CD in my car's player without reading a word.) If this indeed was to be a new release for Múm, it would most certainly be a step back. The sound quality is not exactly on par with what a Múm fan might be used to, and the major-scale over clicky-click beats thing has been beaten to death by a zillion aspiring laptop rockers in countless indie and net-releases for the last five years.

But... this release was recorded in 1999, which if memory serves, was around the time that the clicky movement was first being born (that would place Múm at the vanguard, where they belong.) This disc also provides a candid look into the Múm toolbox; the clean, patient sounds, ethereal keyboards, live instrumentation and pulsing rhythms are all there in infancy, offering up a missing link in the evolutionary story of Múm.

Highlights are "Asleep on a train" which features a hypnotic drum loop, melodica, and bells weaving in and out of a sinewave bass and water-drop melody; "The Ballad of a Broken Birdie Records" which highlights a wispy female vocal over lethargically crunchy clicks and synths; and "Sunday Night Just Keeps on Rolling" which forces the user to wait in anxiety for six of eight minutes before delivering an ejaculatory, up-tempo, bit-degraded drum rush.

All in all, this disc will find its way into my car collection and will most definitely get spins alongside other Mum discs like Summer make good and Finally we are no one. It will also serve as a stopgap until the next collection of new Múm tunes is born.

More than OK 2005-11-19 This much loved Icelandic foursome made this album when they were still teenagers. The release was available for a short while and then went out of print. The band finally got the rights to the record from the original label after much unfortunate squabbling and have tweaked and re-mastered it to sound as they originally intended. This innocent and gorgeous song cycle is their first and best recording. It's been a favorite here for years and is finally available to everyone in all it's glory.

Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK

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