Swallowed A Star

[2.5/5] Daníel Ágúst, co-founder of Icelandic people-movers GusGus, uses his solo debut to shed the “life of the dance floor” dandy and embrace the intimate singer-songwriter within, replete with the requisite string orchestration and a hushed vocal delivery. And while the veneer of class and sophistication is consistent throughout-and downright elegant on "The Moss" and "The Gray"-it’s almost too delicate to resonate. The economical storytelling, most glaringly on "Nobody Else," possesses neither the propulsive drive nor the melodic sensibilities of his former day job. Ágúst doesn’t have the freak-of-nature pipes like, say, Iceland’s national thrush Björk to push the tracks above pleasantly pedestrian, to soar instead of merely hovering. Repetition and parsimony in electronic music often produces hypnotic results, but when the room gets smaller, it builds all the wrong kinds of tension. (ONE LITTLE INDIAN) Erick Haight