Endless summer

Album review

After establishing a contemplative, overcast chamber electro-pop across a span of two albums, Icelandic musician Sóley Stefánsdóttir veers slightly off her established course to take a more scenic route for her third solo LP. Titled Endless Summer, it took inspiration from a note she scribbled down after waking in the middle of the night: "Write about hope and spring." Still restrained and artful in its detailing, the album takes on a more whimsical tone and piano-centric palette than her prior effort, 2015's Ask the Deep, while still sounding uniquely Sóley. It opens with a passage of solo piano from the instrument's upper range on "Úa," which shares her daughter's name. The intimate piece, full of sweetness and dissonance, incorporates twinkling mallet percussion, horns, strings, and howling vocals in turn, with the overall effect of an off-kilter nursery rhyme. Likewise, several passing moments on Endless Summer, some of which unfold during the waltz "Traveler," are remindful of Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals, particularly "Aquarium," both in terms of palette and technique (something we've heard before from Sóley on a track like "Fight from Soft" from her debut). She infuses the album with a similarly fantastical charm and discreet volume. Both a songwriter and colorist, she seems to embrace pastels instead of blues and silvers here, without ever reaching for a rainbow. It's a brief outing at just over 30 minutes with seven songs and a short instrumental interlude ("Inbetween"). Still, it has time to transport and make an impression, emotionally and sonically, traits that all of Sóley's work to date has in common.

© Marcy Donelson /TiVo