Hjaltalin // Enter 4

I’ve never been so disappointed with being caught hook, line and sinker by a press release as I was with Hjaltalin’s album Enter 4. Promises of haunting music forged from Icelandic heritage and skewed by a severe mental breakdown tantalised, it would transpire, beyond the imaginable, as the reality was a most lacklustre affair. Opening track “Lucifer/He Felt Like a Woman” sounded like a Seal slow jam, and was punctuated by an unnerving female backing vocal; an odd choice for an album opener, but excusable I thought. However, “Forever Someone Else’s” disturbing refrain of “I just wanted you to hit me/Don’t wait, just hit me” was delivered in such a ‘3am chill out compilation’ manner that the female lead ended up sounding a bit like Jessie Ware, and the whole thing passed without any of the impact the lyrics could have had in another arrangement. Perhaps mental illness had taken its toll on Hjaltalin more than I thought, as it was a schizophrenic start, and it didn’t promise to get any more cogent. The propensity for short vocal runs removed any strong melody in “I Feel You”, and although the chorus was better-rounded, three tracks in and I’d forgive you for turning the whole thing off. “Crack In A Stone” suffered from the same ailments - rambling lead vocals, a jarring backing singer, and completely contrasting instrumentation. I took my own advice, and stopped listening at this point. I felt guilty for not listening all the way through though, so returned a few hours later to skim over the remaining tracks. It’s safe to say that the aptly titled final track “Ethereal” was the only saving grace in an otherwise truly baffling collection of songs. Made even more moving after wading through the rest of the record, the Justin Vernon-esque falsetto finally exposed the emotion I had craved since the beginning, and the orchestral closing measures capped off what is actually a wonderfully affecting ballad. Sadly, it couldn’t save the rest of the album. 5/10 Alex Throssell