Review
By Patrick Dillon
Album: Plowing Into the Field of Love (2014)
“Ideally, Iceage should not only cover the emotions that come with a clenched fist, but everything that comes with living our lives,” Frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt replied when asked about the expansion of Iceage’s sound last year. A lofty statement when you listen to their last LP, the brilliantly brutal: You’re Nothing. Still, Iceage has matured quickly since they first raged onto the post-punk scene in 2011, and on their third full length album, Denmark’s finest craft a tremendous record that brings them closer than ever to their goal, bringing together beauty with power.
The transformation begins with the instrumentation. The sheer onslaught of feedback and noise found on their previous work is stripped back in favor of longer more layered songs, and the instrumentation evolves beyond the guitars, bass, and piano of their earlier LPs. Its not so much shocking that mandolin, horns, and strings are found on this record, it’s that they sound so good amongst Iceage’s raw emotional brand of post-punk. The rhythm section on this LP is noteworthy as well, with the driving bass and pounding frantic drums being a real highlight on almost very track. All of these instruments gradually build on each track leading to some pretty fantastic climaxes (The horns on “Forever" and strings and acoustics of the title track are especially good). This new found musical complexity make’s each of these tracks stand up individually, but also ties the album together nicely.
But it’s not just the instrumentals that show Iceage’s musical evolution. The band tackles many new styles and influences on this new LP. Beyond the usual Joy Division and Bauhaus comparisons, there seems to be a bit of a Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds vibe coming from a lot of these tracks. The track “The Lord Favorite” is practically a country song with its rollicking bass-line and rockabilly guitars, and attention must be paid to the excellent slow burner “Against the Moon”, a horn and string laden piano ballad par: brilliant. Of course Iceage makes all of these sounds and influences sound distinctly their own and frontman Elias Rønnenfelt’s wounded howl sounds more confident and clear than ever.
Thats not to say this album is “upbeat”. On the contrary, the additional instrumentation and Elias’s up front and tortured vocal create a heightened sense of despair and isolation, assisted of course by his excellent lyrical ability. It helps that you can actually hear what he’s saying (most of the time). Rønnenfelt can sound swaggering and arrogant (“Lord’s Favorite”), drunkly powerful (“Abundant Living”), and downright defeated (“Stay” and “Forever”). There's a certain power that flows through lines like “Whatever I do, I do not repent, I keep pissing against the moon”. Just listen to my favorite verse on the album from the track “Glassy Eyed Dormant and Veiled”:
“The world was once seen burning in my eyes just as it is in yours now, A hurricane of memories put out the embers that remained and now I'm gone. Though I'm obsolete, I’ll scold you in your dreams. A myriad of maladies, incomplete identity, hunger for the love I never gave.”
His impassioned Danish croon brings a real sense of anger, melancholy, and emotion that prevails throughout each track of the album.
Not all tracks wow as much as others but even my least favorite tracks on this album are still very good. “Let it Vanish” and “Simony” lack the impactful horns or strings found elsewhere on this album, opting for a more straightforward rock sound but keep the same passion and grit that make the more fleshed out songs so spectacular. As straightforward rock tunes go they’re still great, if not as memorable as some of the more refined tracks. Still, there are no bad songs on this album for me, just favorites and least favorites, and thats a very good thing.
Even with this album being nearly double the length of anything they've ever attempted, Iceage have crafted an excellently paced, excellently played, and excellently written album. Not every tune is as “AMAZING” as some of the high points, but they’re not off by much. All the risks Iceage took with this album have payed off gloriously, and we’re left with the most exciting and profound rock records this fall, and probably even this year.
I Like These Tracks: “Forever”, “Against the Moon”, “The Lord’s Favorite”, “Plowing into the Field of Love”, “Abundant Living”, "Glassy Eyed, Dormant, and Veiled"
Least Favorite Track: “Let it Vanish”
Score: 9/10
