Rating: 7.5 / Format: CD/LP / Label: Eskimo
Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas are such likeable figures, and have straddled that border between organic pop and hands-in-the-air dance music so well over the last few years – be that via Thomas’ mercurial DJing, or those Feedelity singles, or Lindstrøm’s underrated, larger-than-life Where You Go I Go Too album – that it’s hard to say anything bad about them. So let’s get any criticism for II, their second collaborative album, out of the way first. It’s maybe a bit long.
In fact, it’s very long; it’s over 70 minutes, completely vocal-less, and with little to distinguish its eight tracks from each other. There are those moments where, although the music’s undeniably great, you find yourself wondering how long’s left, and it’s inevitably longer than you thought it would be. But maybe I’m missing the point. II might lack narrative thrust, but so what? It’s more like an all-nighter where you can drift in and out as you please, those synth-sighs and chiming chords swaying upwards, outwards and circling rather than tunneling purposefully along some linear path. That unimposing weightlessness does count against II on some level, but when the sounds themselves are this close to heavenly it scarcely matters.
Stacey Morris
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