From Iceland — Ourlives: We Lost The Race

Published August 6, 2010

Thanks, you bastards. I was having a zonked-out Sunday there, minding my
own business, before your proggy, introspective tunes made my hangover
come up again. This is not, of course, a bad thing: the first track on
your wily debut album, ‘Anything Can Happen Now’, has quite lovely
strings and such downbeat gorgeousness it meant I cried out half the
absinth from my body, which I desperately needed to do. If there they
sound a little bit like a world-weary Belle & Sebastian, on other
occasions an opiate-mumbly Keane rears its head. This is not a bad thing
either. Keane turned out to make some decent music in the end and the
lead singer is much taller than you might think. Elsewhere, when things
rev up a little, such as ‘No Need’, there’s a Musey drive to the band
that suits the reedy voice of Leitur rather less well, which is a bit of
a shame. Oh, and try the title track for one of the reasons we couldn’t
get through to the end of the review without mentioning Sigur Rós.
Sorry lads.