All Over the Face

Personnel: Svavar Petur Eysteinsson (vocals, guitar); Berglind Hasler (vocals, piano, synthesizer); Orvar Poreyjarson Smarason (harmonica, background vocals); _ormodur Dagsson (drums).
Photographer: Svavar Petur Eysteinsson.
Scraggly pop/rock that somehow sounds like slightly scraggly FM rock from the early '80s at times--not necessarily to be expected from a 21st century group from Iceland. Thus the feeling of Skakkamanage's ALL OVER THE FACE, which has enough guitar heroics and nervous tension to be something beamed in from the early Reagan years. Songs like "Costa Bravo" and "Now or Never" somehow maintain this feeling of seemingly unexpected power-up chug--if hardly sounding like the Hold Steady it might actually work as an analog. On the quieter tip, a song like "Smell You Later" may seem to be snark-based by its title alone, but the gentle roil of piano and harmonica is almost a bit of heartland rock translated to the mid-Atlantic. Meantime "Summer All Over" might be the most traditional indie song on the album, suggesting everything from the Tindersticks to Yo La Tengo.