Remember when you first heard Múm and there was that trial period where you knew the music was pretty interesting but you weren’t sure if you could deal with that creepy voice? Well, turns out that banshee was holding up her share of the framework, because two albums after the departure of Kria Brekkan and a few other early players, the group is only a toy-piano solo away from becoming a total caricature of themselves.

The up-coming fifth album Sing Along to Song You Don’t Know, is so saccharine that it makes me want to sneeze my brains out through my nose. Are Múm being held hostage by a bunch of teenage Brooklynites with Ritalin and glockenspiels? Without the contrast of spook and splendor found throughout the first three albums this Icelandic brand of pop sounds insincere and hastily arraigned. Occasionally, the rhythm section still churns out a compelling beat, like on the curiously danceable ‘The Smell of Today is Sweet Like Breastmilk in the Wind’ (everyone’s favorite scented candle), but newly acquired fixation with the excessively-twee immediately muscles it’s way back into the driver’s seat with tracks like the opener ‘If I Were A Fish’ (“if i were a fish/and you were a seashell/ would you marry me anyways/would you have my babies?”). It’s no fun to come down on Múm like this, and if they release an instrumental version of Sing Along, we might be able to recommend it, but unless that happens your time is in much better hands with their back catalog.

Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know comes out August 24th on Morr Music.

For fans of:  Lali Puna, Magnetic Fields, Bjork, Fog

Fagen-Becker Quality Rating

MP3 :::
Múm – If I Were a Fish
Múm – The Smell of Today is Sweet Like Breastmilk in the Wind