Album Review: Ásgeir Show Love Is A Galaxy In Afterglow
You ever see those computer demos of what planets look like. They virtualize a world that seems welcoming and even breathable for, us, human beings. Who would not want to travel to the pink pixels of Jupiter or the “skateable” rings of Saturn. Like those demos, Ásgeir’s new, sophomore album, Afterglow, paints an intergalactic world that feels touchable to humanity, and one where love could still have a place.
Ásgeir – Stardust (Official Video)
No, Ásgeir does not talk about moving to Venus or starting a family in Mars, but the instrumentals of this record give an immediate cosmic aura. It is hard not feel like you are swimming through space in songs such as “Stardust” and “Dreaming” where every key and chord is as stretched as the galaxy. Somehow Ásgeir has arranged Afterglow to have the same mystifying and eternal sense of space; where you can always keep going and finding something new. The notion is both beautiful and daunting considering the album is about love. Every song such as, “I Know You Know”, “Here Come The Wave In”, and “Nothing”, shows this virtue is endless in the discoveries its holds for you about yourself. For Asgeir, his heart is a galaxy, and his relationships are like spaceships flying through and occasionally landing for exploration. Lyrically, Asgeir’s 75-year-old father, renowned poet Einar Georg Einarsson, helped him write songs like, “Afterglow”, that show the universality of love even when it is working individually through you. Hence tracks like, ‘Unbound”, “Underneath It”, and “New Day” have a spiritual hymnal/ odyssey vibe that relies on water-falling guitar melodies and Asgeir’s soulful suffusions disseminate love as an unavoidable, human emotion.I cannot say I have heard too many songs or albums like this Icelandic artist’s Afterglow. It aims to be deconstructed by an audience upon listen, which is why, if Asgeir claimed Iceland’s Northern Lights was the inspiration, I would believe it. Auroras are a phenomena that trigger in humanity a need to understand it, bur our fascination with its beauty, comes with the fact that we do not. Like the Northern Lights, Ásgeir is moved by the sentiment of love, which transfixes him, but vocally, he appears so still.
Ásgeir – Unbound (Official Video)
Ásgeir has a signature falsetto that, no matter what height it reaches in range, appears so still. I marvel at this capacity because when you think of Soul, you think of flared range and emotion. The whole point of soul, as a genre, is that it exemplifies the gushing and gashing of sentiment. Yet, feelings pour out Ásgeir as if he is a still, ornate fountain. For however much, his lyrical prowess and wonders spread across a synth-pop backdrop, you still feel like there is an inner calm guiding Asgeir to explore the galaxy of love with you: the listener. For More Information On Ásgeir And To Buy Afterglow on May 5 Click Here.
