Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armini

Rating:

* * *

Iceland's economy may be in meltdown but musically the place would seem to be in good heart. Well, that's if the happy sound of the gamine Emiliana Torrini's sixth album is anything to go by.

The woman, most heard as the voice behind Gollum's Song in

The Two Towers

soundtrack, is a much gentler proposition than a certain countrywoman to which she will always be compared. Her album comes backboned by sweetly acoustic torch-pop of mostly understated delivery and slightly exotic consonants. Which also means some of those songs do tend to coalesce into one pleasant background hum.

Though when she strives for something a little more dramatic, as she does on

Heard it All Before

, she can sound like a perfect collision of Bic Runga's approach on her

Birds

and Bjork's showtune tendencies.

Elsewhere she's  delivering ambling pop-reggae on the title track which suggests a Lily Allen-Sinead O'Connor hybrid, as well as infectiously giddy electropop on

Jungle Drum

. The reverb-drenched guitar-driven psychedelic blues of

Gun

gives this otherwise placid affair a dark undercurrent. But for the most part, Torrini's latest is a real charmer, but just a little too polite to leave a truly lasting impression.

Russell Baillie