Track Listing

1. To Be Free
2. Wednesday's Child
3. Baby Blue
4. Dead Things
5. Unemployed in Summertime
6. Easy
7. Fingertips
8. Telepathy
9. Tuna Fish
10. Summerbreeze
11. Sea People

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23214 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Import, Limited Edition
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Go to an eerie place
Most people have heard her unique vocals, singing the hauntingly, sorrowfully creepy "Gollum's Song" during the closing credits of "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." But very few people know Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini by name. Which is a shame, because her trip-hop/electronica album, "Love in the Time of Science," is a unforgettable one.

While sitting firmly on a seat of trip-hop and gentle pop, Torrini stretches her wings with a variety of musical types. It's made up of light electronica like the cool, sweet "To Be Free," and murky pop ballads with a slightly morbid edge. "Keep my daughter in a jar/she can't get out/she won't go far," Torrini croons in one song.

She keeps the cool, dark edge with the eerie "Wednesday's Child" and "Telepathy," the offbeat jazz of "Dead Things," and even a few songs that are fun and upbeat pop, singing about friends who hang out and goof around in the summertime. There's even alien avant-pop that defies classification, where Torrini sings creepily about how tuna fish float with "bellies to the moon."

Comparisons to Bjork are inevitable, since they hail from the same country and have similar vocal styles. However, Torrini's music is smoother and less distant, less electronic and more organic. It's also graced with more traditional instrumentation and a warmer sound. Her music is a different shade of electronica-pop.

Her voice has a haunted, slightly eerie quality. Furthermore, it has the flexibility to be warm one moment, chilly and creepy the next, allowing her to gracefully slide from one kind of song to another. Her thick Icelandic accent makes her singing even more enchanting.

The writing of the songs ranges from surreal ("Tuna Fish") to pleasantly ordinary ("Summerbreeze"), using simple and evocative words for jumbled feelings. "But if it's so good being free/Would you mind telling me/Why I don't know what to do with myself?" she asks plaintively at the very start.

Far from a Bjork clone, Emiliana Torrini produces a superb solo album. Combining the best of electronica, pop and jazz, "Love in the Time of Science" is startlingly memorable and well worth it.

downtempo triphop pop with no comparison to bjork
What can I say about Emiliana Torrini? She's so dreamy that I need to replace my gus gus 'polydistortion' disc because I don't remember her singing on two of the tracks. Emiliana is an incredible singer albeit slightly commercial in places. Her tracks range from incredible triphop moments to saccharine pop, which isn't a bad thing. overall it pleasantly comes together as a whole creating a lovely collection of what I would call downtempo triphop pop. The only similarities between Emiliana and bjork are they're both from Iceland. There are times when her vocal stylings or pronunciations sound similar to bjork and on 'telepathy' and especially `sea people' it sounds like bjork growling in your ear, but make no mistake it's emiliana you're listening to and that's where the comparisons should end.

my top three favorite tracks are: 'umemployed in the summertime' because it's such a lovely, upbeat optimistic pop song; 'telepathy' because it is one of those beautiful bjork-like moments with slow beats, rising strings and an aggressive bassline and 'tuna fish' because it's just a cool triphop track. I get goosebumps when she sings: "Do you know that tuna fish float up to the surface, bellies to the moonlight just to cool their hearts down." She's really amazing.

If you're looking for something refreshing then buy `love in the time of science' but don't buy it if you're expecting a bjork sound-alike.

worth the wait!!
I had to wait a few months to get this and with no sound clips available I was abit skeptical when I placed my order. I first heard about Emiliana by way of a Tears For Fears page mentioning Roland had contributed 2 songs. Great, I thought! Then I read all the wonderful reviews and the comparisons to Bjork. Double great!! Then one reviewer made the connection between Emiliana and Gus Gus and I loved the female vocals on Polydistortion so I became less skeptical. When I got LITTOS, I couldn't have been happier. Roland's influences are all over it and her voice is beautiful. And yes, she sounds like Bjork, but just a little softer in my opinion. They are both from Iceland where there is heavy culture and small population so the similarity is not a surprise to me. The song Telepathy has such power and force to it. Both about love, Summertime is simple and wonderful and Sea People is cute and short. On the whole, the CD is slow, so to some it is mood music. My only problem with the CD is that on the whole it is too short. It comes in just under 40 minutes. Why is it that some of my favorite artists can't put out anything longer than 50 minutes? Well, even though it is short it is great so go out and get it!