Kalli - While the City Sleeps

Genre rock Publisher One Little Indian External Links Official Kallie Website Official One Little Indian Records Website

While the City Sleeps finds Icelandic singer/songwriter Kalli stretching beyond the acoustic rambles of his former band, Without Gravity, while staying essentially true to the band's folksy, introspective approach. Over the course of 10 songs ranging from mellow alt-country to power pop to coffee shop folk, Kalli shows his willingness to experiment with different approaches, though the album is ultimately held together by the moody, almost fragile quality of Kalli's voice, which could probably cover "Back in Black" and make it sound like a considered meditation on one's own mortality.

Kalli stretches most on songs "It's Over" and "Jupiter." These tunes rely heavily on distorted electric guitar, heavy pop drumming, and a stringent string section that pushes each chorus to a crescendo. The arrangements are nice, adding some variety to the album, but ultimately they don't mesh particularly well with Kalli's voice. As the songs build, it sounds increasingly like the band and the singer are in two different places, talking about two different things.

Not surprisingly, it's the acoustic pieces that best show off the depth and subtlety of Kalli's voice. On "Sunny Day," it's just acoustic guitar and voice, and every bend, inflection, even breath is right out in front. On "Bridges Burn," the interplay between vocals and a simple piano and guitar accompany is quite satisfying. These songs all tend to be downers, mellow takes on life's problems, but they work because of Kalli's knack for breathing life into everything he says.

With that said, these acoustic pieces can start to feel a bit formulaic. Most of the arrangements take a stab at sounding intricate but come up a bit short, sounding simple more than poignant. Likewise, many songs suffer from underdeveloped lyrics. On "Bridges Burn," Kalli sings, "Gotta get back home/'Cause I'm cold and tired/I'm dead and wrong/It's nothing I desire." On "River of Darkness," it's, "River of darkness, my heart is broken/Can't find my way out of the gray." Nothing really bad about that, but after a while it starts to sound predictable. The pop pieces shake things up a bit, but I found myself wishing the album would create something new in the acoustic sound rather than relying on distortion to liven things up. The exception to this is "Morning Rain," the album's best song. Featuring subtle drum work and acoustic guitar, the song features the same mellow acoustic vibe as much of the album, but benefits by shelving the string section and giving a single electric guitar a considerable amount of space to slip in and out between the lyrics. The lyrics here are also a bit more evocative.

Fans of mellow acoustic music will enjoy this album, as well as Without Gravity fans who want to see what Kalli has been up to. Listeners new to the artist will enjoy Kalli's emotive voice but may find themselves wishing for a more developed framework to accompany it.