Morning Star

by

Flunk

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"All I wanna do/Is sit here on my balcony/And think about you and me/And how happy we could be..."

Norwegian band Flunk achieve near perfection in "Morning Star," their second "folktronic" album. Languid, mellow and charmingly catchy, this is also graced with angelic vocals and a sense of romantic realism. It's an album for people drunk on love, but with a taste for heartbreak.

It opens with a slow sweep of electronica and sweet vocals: "Everyone/Every singer and every song/Everyone/And every lover whose lover's gone..." Soon Flunk has slipped into a blurry, ethereal groove, which is grounded by the folky melodies of their wispy electronic music.

From there on, the band kicks off into a series of enchantingly sweet folktronic songs: dreamy pop melodies, electronic swirls, folksy guitar balladry, and chirrupy little dancey numbers. And Flunk explores emotions too, starting with the warm rush of early love, but slowly descending as trust is lost.

The album ends on a poignant note, with the speaker announcing, "After all I have no more to say/To you." After being lied to, she ends up wandering in the rain, dazed by the breakup and asking, "Who would dare to bring me love?"

What exactly makes Flunk such a good band? First and foremost, it's obviously the music. This quartet blends folk melodies and electronic wizardry together, producing both dreamy ambience and bouncy pop. Jo Bakke's gently folky guitar and Erik Rudd's solid drumming serve to highlight Ulf Nygaard's smooth programming.

And Anja Oyen Vister is the icing on this enchanting musical cake. Vocally, she's a dead ringer for Icelandic chanteuse Emiliana Torrini, with the same breathy fragility and sweetness. Even better, she sounds like she actually means every word of the songs she sings.

Which is the perfect voice to wisp out lines about how "you know that a love affair/is a lot like the rainbow... you should know that the beauty of life/is the beauty of falling in love..." A few songs like "Morning Star" have too-simplistic lyrics, but fortunately Vister's vocals are enough to overcome whatever boredom they might inspire.

Few bands can create such a perfect, enchantingly sweet music. But Flunk's "Morning Star" is one of those rare little collections, which is pure beauty from start to finish.

Flunk's For Sleepyheads Only is a downbeat/chill out masterpiece and Morning Star tries to live up to For Sleepyheads Only but doesn't quite make it. Morning Star is much less electronic than For Sleepyheads Only. Tracks like Kemikal Girl and I've Been Waiting All My Life To Leave You sound like they jumped off of 70's AM radio and don't do much for me at all. It's nothing but guitar and vocals very slow and laidback. It's because of songs like the two mentioned, Flunk sound a lot like a folk band from the 1970's. But there are strong tracks like Six Seven Times and Morning Star that are quite nice and sound much more like what For Sleepyheads was like.

On For Sleepyheads Only there was a cover of the New Order classic Blue Monday and Flunk have decided to do the same with Morning Star and included a live version of True Faith. Unfortunately this is a bit annoying to me as I am used to the beats of the New Order classic track and there aren't any here just guitars and vocals. It's too bad what they did to it.

So if you're looking the For Sleepyheads Only sound then you will be disappointed with Morning Star but if you can get past that and appreciate your folksy sounding 70's music then you will enjoy this album by Flunk. For something quite different check out their remixes of For Sleepyheads Only called Treat Me Like You Do. There are some great remixes on there.

SJ

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