Teitur: All My Mistakes
Teitur: All My Mistakes
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By Sarah Garrod. |  |
Monday, 12, Oct 2009 05:39
A&G Records, out now.
In a nutshell...
Acoustic guitar-driven, well-formed folky pop compilation.
What's it all about?
Teitur's fourth album, or his fifth if you count one Faroese effort in 2007, is hoping to build on his last release in The Singer, which came out around a year-and-a-half ago. Not that it will be a must-buy for most fans, like; it's a compilation of his first two offerings: Poetry & Aeroplanes from 2003 and Stay Under The Stars from 2006.
Who's it by?
Teitur Lassen is best known for his song One & Only, which most people will recognise through media saturation at the time as well as a couple of movie soundtracks including that for My Super Ex-Girlfriend, a film only saved by Eddie Izzard. Then again, Catherine the Waitress is so ridiculously well-known it's untrue.
He's swept up at certain Danish awards ceremonies and is very popular in his native country, though he still hasn't broken through to become too common a name across the UK and US.
Despite that, he's an active artist when it comes to his gigs and has toured with, or opened for, the likes of Radiohead, KT Tunstall and John Mayer. So it's not all bad.
As an example...
"Catherine the waitress, if you only knew where my mind is/'Is there anything you'd like?'/If I could only tell you/You haven't even noticed me, but, oh you are so good to me." - Catherine the Waitress
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Not on a compilation, unless they do retrospective ones.
What the others say
"The album's artful strangeness will be aural Marmite to many, but this deep, viscous stuff is never less than extraordinary." - Jude Rogers, The Guardian, on The Singer
"Teitur Lassen is an intriguing writer and a moving singer whose performances on The Singer wreak a kind of understated but devastating passion comparable to Anthony & The Johnsons." - Andy Gill, The Independent, on The Singer
So is it any good?
First thing's first: this bloke's pretty damn good at what he does. You'll know it too, though in the same way that people treat French electronic kings Air: you'll've heard and probably enjoyed the songs, you just didn't know they were by, well, *him*.
Teitur Lassen's most recognisable track from the album is Catherine the Waitress, known for its joyous whooping refrain and its sweet lyrics about a bloke who clearly doesn't have the balls to ask out a nice girl. It's charming, fun and the kind of thing you'd stick on a mini-video of a good summer.
One & Only is a good tune too, though one that has probably been boosted by it being popular with a director or two. It's not the strongest offer on the album but it's not too bad. It's akin to Iris by Goo Goo Dolls; its reputation precedes it and you feel hard done by when you're not swept off your feet.
There's something pretty weird about this album in that it's hard to find a song you dislike. It's the overall inoffensive nature of Teitur Lassen, I suppose. Many will float over you or not register with all of the brain, yet none of it will force you to change the track if you're feeling in a particularly lazy mood.
Apart from Catherine the Waitress, I Run The Carousel and You Get Me are really solid tracks that force you to enjoy them. In the context of the album this is pretty easy but also hard, as this brand of relaxed acoustic music is easy to tune out completely in certain moods. You'll know when the aforementioned tracks are on, though.
A major issue is that his voice could easily be misattributed to a few other artists, notably David Gray. Obviously it's a bit harsh to criticise a bloke on the grounds that he's got a natural voice like other similarly-gifted people, but the vanilla aspect of the aforementioned comparison could have held artists like David Gray and Teitur back. Maybe the Faroese crooner is a little like that; he just needs that extra push.
That said, some of the songs on the album are wonderful, especially if you're wanting to feel a bit sorry for yourself.
It's worth a look. The famous songs aren't a great representation of his overall style so if you're giving it a gander, pick some at random to download. I Run The Carousel's a good start, even if it's for the dramatic parts alone.
7/10
Matt Gardner