MØ

NO MYTHOLOGIES TO FOLLOW (Chess Club)

7/20

As a strong Danish female plucked up by Sony and embedded into our subconscious by soundtracking international mixed fruit cider promos, MØ’s electronic sound is strikingly quirky. 

As you might expect, her inaugural full-length No Mythologies To Follow branches off the beaten track. Opener Fire Rides showcases MØ’s brilliant vocal harmonic range, layered and produced to sound ambitiously numerical, as though from some witchy, almost- choral congregation, bursting alongside power riffs. Then comes the smooth-rather-than icy Maiden, taking a simpler route that smoulders with indigent but loving content and a subtle loop of Spanish guitar. But a third of the journey in is where the route takes an awkward U-turn.

Red In The Grey forms an irregular, programmed Euro-beat marriage to her abnormally warbling vocals, where the later Glass initiates akin to a Christmas advert jingle, followed by over-enthusiastic synths and a horrendous attempt at a ‘trap’ beat. When her most dazzling work such as Waste Of Time and beautiful Lana Del Rey charm on Dust Is Gone are lost in a haphazard union of R&B and creepy electronica that fail to fuse, we’re left with an uphurl of eccentrically tacky, disparate tracks, overpowering her potential for bold brilliance.