I always pictured Mum as one of those great post-rock groups with leanings toward electronic bleeps and bloops and lightly orchestrated melodies with dark sound-scapes, all of it instrumental. After all, Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is Okay was pretty much just that, and it is the only album from Mum of which I’ve heard. Their new one, Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know is quite different – at least at first. And I just haven’t quite gotten over the shock of less electronics and… well, the full inclusion of vocals.

Still, initial head turning inquiries aside, Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know isn’t half bad. In fact, it’s quite solid. The melody in “Sing Along”, after a few listens, surpasses anything off Yesterday/Today. And, instead of coming in around a Mogwai reference, these sounds are more in line with a group like Architecture In Helsinki minus that group’s occasional overt and over-the-top cheesiness. It has moments that come close (I’m thinking of you, “The Smell Of Today Is Sweet Like The Breast Milk In The Wind”), but the overall hypnotic mannerisms of these songs leave them in an altogether different universe.

Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know is packed with light, bouncy pop tunes like “Prophecies And Reversed Memories” and “Blow Your Nose” that are filled with highly melodic instrumentation and obscure instruments (in the former, what sounds like a didgeridoo). In a way, the inclusion of full vocals give this band a completely different personality, as if having undergone electroshock therapy. And as such procedures are meant to do, the resulting alterations to that personality are ones that many will agree as being much more enjoyable than the prior.

Morr Music [CD, 2009]

1. If I Were A Fish
2. Sing Along
3. Prophecies And Reversed Memories
4. A River Don’t Stop To Breathe
5. The Smell Of Today Is Sweet Like The Breast Milk In The Wind
6. Show Me
7. Hullabbalabbaluu
8. Blow Your Nose
9. Kay-Ray-Ku-Ku-Ko-Kex
10. The Last Shapes Of Never
11. Illuminated
12. Ladies Of The New Century

When it comes to music, Iceland is known to be a little out there. Experimentation is nothing new, and the country’s own Sin Fang Bous is no different. The solo project of Sindri Mar Sigfusson, Sin Fang Bous’ debut experimental pop album, Clangour, deserves great praise. A fascinating thing it would be to catch Sigfusson live, and that’s exactly what you here in the Pacific Northwest can do as November dawns on us. Sin Fang Bous is hitting the states with Icelandic pals Múm, who are coming here to support their new record, Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know.

Check out “Catch The Light” and the live West Coast dates below.

Sin Fang Bous: Catch The Light [mp3]

Sin Fang Bous on Tour:

11.02.09: Richards on Richards in Vancouver, British Columbia
11.03.09: Showbox at the Market in Seattle, Washington
11.04.09: Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon
11.05.09: The Independent in San Francisco, California
11.06.09: El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, California
11.07.09: Yost Theatre in Santa Ana, California