January 22, 2002

Leaves : Breathe

This lovely, half-melted Cornetto of a record would make the perfect theme tune to 'The Snowman Goes Post-Rock'...

Arnar Gudjonnson, a refugee from Mower who appears to have dug his way out with all the tunes, apparently had to whisper all of the vocals onto this home demo while his parents were asleep.

A right pisser if you're Andrew WK with hot lovin' on your mind but a bit of a boon if, like Iceland's Leaves, you're chasing that hanggliding-to-the-North-Pole-to-canoodle-with-Coldplay dollar. With its guitars wailing like clubbed seal cubs, a piano that sounds as if its been buried in a glacier for twelve million years and Sigur Ros tied in a sack under the drum-kit, this lovely, half-melted Cornetto of a record would make the perfect theme tune to 'The Snowman Goes Post-Rock'.

And with its lilting refrain of "You can't get me in, still you try", it may well be the first ever song written about the guest-list traumas of being an ex-member of Menswear.

Mark Beaumont