If I will have to choose the first Icelandic band that explores and composes within the electronic genre and impressed me without any additional external impulses, it would not be the most famous GusGus but… Worm Is Green. At the time when I discovered them, they charmed me with only two full-length albums (Automagic, 2003, and Push Play released in 2007). Now, the band arrived on my music path again presenting the brand new fourth album entitled To Them We Are Only Shadows.
After five years since releasing the last album Glow, we finally got the new material in shape of ten original compositions. Even the very first seconds of To Them We Are Only Shadows that belong to the song titled the same, remind what constitutes the strength and the greatest charm of Worm Is Green. It is fragile, lovely and clear Guðriður Ringsted´s vocal. She is able to create perfectly an atmosphere of melancholy and push into the trip-hop abyss as she does for example in With You, the bewitching album’s closer song. But no worries, the band have never been overwhelming by heavy and suffocating electronic so also this time it offers sensitive sounds including even piano themes (Voices). To the advantage, To Them We Are Shadows does not present a homogenous atmosphere so the album is able to surprise listeners on every step. Trip-hop enthusiasts will find echoes of chunky heavy dark sound such as in For A Single Line that shows Guðriður voice in the company of the male vocal.
But Worm Is Green is not only a poignant melancholy sound because the band has never been easy to pigeonhole always choosing only the best elements of the music genres such as downtempo or trip-hop. Thanks to the care of the sound details on To Them We Are Only Shadows, the band shows an incredible suppleness when it comes about shaping a picturesque image of the songs. So soft, atmospherical and hypnotising Around & Around makes me really feel observing this scene under a shining moon. A glow of the bonfire reflects in the eyes of people that happily dance smiling around. So delicately, sylphlike, mystical and ethereal. Because of the lyric Let´s Just Live My Love also presents a cheerful and very positive mood. Wonderful rays of the sun fall on my face even if I would listen to this song while walking in the rain. With their lyrics combined with music Worm Is Green influences on imagination of listeners. They can infuse our hearts with courage in Stand Your Ground or wink cheerfully at us trying to pull us out onto the dancefloor during The Music. My attention was drawn by the song The Eventual End (Thank You) that is a kind of giving acknowledgement to their listeners and fans for everything that the band could experience during its career.
The inference is clear – Worm Is Green is not a freshman on the Icelandic music scene, therefore, the band consciously shows the new material in appetising manner regaling us with dream melodic pop. It only proves they have class. Not for nothing they ranked up higher than GusGus on my list. In the end, Worm Is Green still chooses his musical direction calling a blissful smile of satisfaction up on my face.
Worm Is Green are:
Guðriður Ringsted – vocals
Árni Teitur Ásgeirsson – programming, synths
Bjarni Þór Hannesson – sampler, synths
Þórsteinn Hannesoson – drums
Worm Is Green – To Them We Are Only Shadows
1. To Them We Are Only Shadows
2. Let’s Just Live My Love
3. Form A Single Line
4. Stand Your Ground
5. Around & Around
6. The Eventual End (Thank You)
7. The Music
8. Voices
9. We Are Lost
10. With You
Check it out on Bandcamp!
