Me and Armini

Emiliana Torrini's complicated and interesting music

A thirty-one year old singer of Italian Icelandic origin Emiliana Torrini has become known to the world after the release of its most successful album Love in the Time of Science of 1999. besides she has co-written and co-produced Kylie Minogue's super hit Slow along with Dan Carey and performs the song in the final credits of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers. Her wonderful vocals and a charming manner of performance place Torrini in one row with such stars as Amy Winehouse, Adele, Duffy, Estelle and many others. Yet her music is somewhat more complicated often getting close to trip hop and this year the singer offers us a chance to be sure once again. Her fifth album Me And Armini is a contender to the position of one of the year's best pop works. Beautiful unusual tunes and interesting texts are only some part of all the record's merits. Naturally it is still much to go till the summer ends for Emiliana herself for her sunny mood fills each track on Me And Armini. Her voice that sounds sometimes so fragile that seems to break and sometimes amazes with its force makes this collection really unforgettable.

The theme of relationships on Me And Armini

As one may have expected most of the album's tracks are devoted to the theme of relationships. A thoughtful composition Fireheads starts the record with a nice melody that shadows the singer's reflections upon the unpleasant aspects of relations such as quarrels and misunderstanding while the single and the title track is a more up-tempo song but still light and ethereal. Amazingly beautiful anthem to nature Birds, the longest track on the album, pleases with the impressive instrumental background and sounds rather solemnly in its climax, and the elements of dance music appear on Heard It All Before: contagious percussion and joyful vocals will leave nobody indifferent. One of the record's most complicated tunes is on Big Jumps, it can be memorized after several times of listening and it is even more difficult to imitate it; the same goes for a sad melancholic composition Jungle Drum. Another quite a long song Gun is the rock genre representative on Me And Armini and one of its highlights: keeping the listeners in tension all the time the singer creates the atmosphere of a real Wild West movie. A waltz rhythm of track Dead Duck combines in an excellent way with the guitars and synthesizers' a bit sullen sounding and only the piano manages to bring a ray of light in this dark kingdom. The chain of these splendid tracks is concluded with a slow ballad Bleeder that sounds like a soundtrack for a sensual melodrama due to Emiliana's soft singing and the lyrics that draw love images anyone is able comprehend.

Musicinspired by nature

This singer with the origins so different can be hardly considered a star of a world level but she has definitely made her contribution to the world music culture. Her talent of an author deserves our special attention for she writes the songs for her albums mostly by herself and actually is quite a success. She has once again collaborated with Dan Carey working on her fifth album and this tandem has naturally proved to be much fruitful this time around as well. Fantastically beautiful music will be surely appreciated both by the performer's fans and by those who have not heard anything about her before. The pieces written by Emiliana, whether we consider the sensual ballads or the impressive anthems are all inspired by the nature of the country she grew in with its picturesque views in any season. Besides the Italian father's temperament who owns and runs a popular Italian restaurant in Iceland is also felt both in her singing and in the lyrics. One of Emiliana Torrini's most successful albums Me And Armini will certainly attract new fans to her and most probably bring her even more fame outside native Iceland.