From Iceland — ‘Icelandick’

Published December 5, 2015

So, there’s an anonymous, experimental electro-R&B group called Vaginaboys, and they have an EP out entitled ‘Icelandick’. I feel like, you know, what more information could you possibly need on the subject, but as Vaginaboys are clearly setting out to perfect some kind of post-modern pop formula by releasing an actually quite listenable collection of woozy, psychedelic, crystalline synth-driven torch songs on a record with not one, but two references to genitalia in the title, I might as well dissect them the best that I can.

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The record opens with “Þú ert svo ein,” which literally opens with the line, “Ha ha ha/Vagina Boys/Ha ha ha ha ha ha,” thusly training its ironic eye onto itself in a swiftly expanding black hole of “Is this something I am actually listening to right now?” But here’s the catch: it’s not a joke. At all. It’s plaintive and moving, every song a sparse celebration of loneliness or love or something decidedly un-silly sung into a vocoder, simple, DIY beats and synth lines subtly driving every track into something almost resembling dance music. The album’s high point is its closer, “Stjörnur,” the closest Vaginaboys get to a party track, if the party is just you in your room being slightly ashamed about how much porn is on your computer. We’ve all been there, and Vaginaboys decided to stay.