Efterklang
Piramida
(4AD)

There doesn’t feel like enough presence to write a full review of Efterklang’s latest album. They have received mostly positive reviews though about the thoughtful direction their music has taken, sparse but beautiful arrangements for sure, and in no way a more intellectual Coldplay (a dismissive comment that is completely off-base.)

“Hollow Mountain,” which leads the album is a glockenspiel, haunting drum, and chanting funeral song that in no way is about apathy and being too apathetic to do anything of substance. Underneath the instrumentation is interesting; there are striking violins and the aforementioned glock, but it remains underneath a too-vapid vocal arrangement.

An easier comparison than an intellectual Coldplay is the first effort of Fleet Foxes. That is to say that Piramida is about mood and atmosphere as if the listener were stranded in a dry desert and was subjected to the occasional mirage interlude of blissful water. The instrumentation can range from bizarre and interesting to completely absent, and the vocals, I promise, are extremely meaningful and if you don’t understand what he’s mumbling then you have to listen harder.

Piramida is hit or miss and will probably be divisive. Some are going to love it and think the musical emptiness is part of the experience, while others are simply going to want more. Check out “Between the Walls” around the two-minute mark and a surprising sexy vocal set will burst from the previously ethereal song.