Product Description

A hugely ambitious pop record with Emiliana's soaring voice center stage, bolstered by a rich gamut of musical styles. From the summery skank of the title track to the surging, breathless single "Jungle Drum" to the yearning, spine-tingling "Big Jumps", "Me And Armini" is a truly sublime album. Torrini sings the song at the end credits for "The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers", and she wrote two #1 hits for Kylie Minogue. Produced by Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Hot Chip).

Track Listing

1. Fireheads
2. Me And Armini
3. Birds
4. Heard It All Before
5. Ha Ha
6. Big Jumps
7. Jungle Drums
8. Hold Heart
9. Gun
10. Beggar's Prayer
11. Dead Duck
12. Bleeder

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2891 in Music
• Released on: 2008-09-09
• Number of discs: 1

Review
"Ms. Torrini's voice is warm and whispery and appealingly unpredictable" --NY Times

Customer Reviews

Excellent folk styled poppy numbers, with dark and delicate tension.
Born to an Italian father and Icelandic mother, Emiliana made a few albums when she was young that only saw release in Iceland, but with her widely released "Love In The Time Of Science" she gained a wider audience in Europe.
She worked closely with multi-instrumentalist Dan Carey on "Fisherman's Woman" and on that album and this new one you can notice how well suited they are together, comfortable to explore any avenues that they encounter, and make something worthwhile out of it.
Turns in co-writing Kylie Minogue single "Slow", and lending her vocals to the spectral Gollum's Song over the credits to "The Lord of the Rings", are other notable, and slightly surprising, facts about her.
Her seventh album sees her embracing a quietly startling range of mainly acoustic moods: from exuberant, rackety rock and roll through reflectively picked ballads to the stalkerish reggae bounce of the title track.
The simple, stripped down instrumentation - often little more than Emiliana's crystalline voice, a guitar and understated keyboards - seem perhaps a little too languid and sparse, even a little samey. But an extended stay reveals sharp jolts of beauty, delicate little flourishes and unexpected oddities hidden in the apparently simple song structures.
There's a murky undertone to a lot of the tracks on this album, from stalker-ish lyrics ("Me And Armini"), to cynical and sardonic perspectives ("Ha Ha", "Heard It All Before"), to menacingly sexy ("Gun"), modern day narratives that reflect the darkness of obsession, lust and heartbreak.
But then there is "Big Jumps" and "Jungle Drum", both emanate an exuberant skewed positivity, and a few others in the reflective, laid back, optimistic style she is so good at, which dispels some of the gloom.
All in all, "Me And Armini is a less introspective affair, showcasing excellent folk styled poppy numbers, with dark and delicate tension.

Love in the Time of Science
Fisherman's Woman

Cool as ice!!!
Emiliana Torrini is a 31 year old Italian/Icelandic singer and her CD "Me and Armini" is Folk-ish tinged with Jazz, electronica, and even Reggae. She's written songs in the past for Kylie, sung the end theme song for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", and worked with Paul Oakenfold and The Sneaker Pimps, and all this piqued my interest (Ok, maybe not the Kylie bit).

Her music is very guitar driven; fingerplucked guitars, her smooth airy vocals (think Feist or even Kate Havnevik), and some flourishes. Soothing and elfin sounding.

A song like the atmospheric "Gun" starts off with a simple muted guitar riff, which progresses into bursts, with smatterings of percussion, some haunting effects, and a breathy performance; a bit White Stripes-like.

Title track "Me and Armini" is a light summery Reggae-ish song that Lily Allen would kill for, while "Jungle drum" is a bouncy incredibly catchy song with vocal percussion impressions adding a nice touch. The acoustic "Birds" has a serene Trip hop-ish interlude.

She reminds me a wee bit of fellow Icelandic songstress Björk on the eerie clap-filled "Heard it all before" with tumbling guitar sounds and bass (and much like Björk, pronounces the letter Z as S). Simply beautiful! "Ha ha" is a more spare sounding acoustic song with a dreamy delivery and a Jazzy feel. In a similar mould is the gentle and stunning "Hold heart".

"Big jumps" is a sunny song with a catchy "doop-de-doop" refrain, while the Jazzy "Dead duck" sounds intentionally off beat to haunting effect. Closing is the melancholic lullaby-like "Bleeder".

Unfortunately, music this creative rarely bothers the charts. What more can I say? This is an album that just grows and grows on you. There must be something about those Icelandic volcanoes that gives rise to such incredible talent as Sigur Rós, Björk, and now Emiliana. I urge you to seek out and get this CD. Awesome!!

P.S. In loving memory of Sadie Ette and all the other thousands who lost their lives on 9/11, 7 years ago today.

It's a hit
Emiliana Torrini's music is awesome; it has way more of an original sound than the deplorable sounds we hear on the radio. If you like Regina Spektor, Yael Naïm, Feist, you should give her a listen:)