What is a leap year? If you were born on February 29 during one, you only get a birthday every four years (and end up aging strangely). If you love the Olympics, then a leap year is a joyous occasion, marking the celebration of the world uniting to play hard. If you\u2019re Sjur Lyseid, it\u2019s an opportunity to explore anything that has come to mean anything in your life within the scope of gorgeously crafted folk music.<\/p>\n
Lyseid, one quarter of Norway\u2019s indie rock quartet Monzano, is the brains behind solo venture The Little Hands Of Asphalt. One month after the release of debut EP Spit Back At The Rain<\/i> comes Little Hands\u2019 first full-length, Leap Years<\/i>, a warm and honest collection of songs that flows like a storybook, giving us insight into every corner of Lyseid\u2019s vulnerably emotional mind. It is not forceful but emanates a real sense of urgency, and slowly weaves its way into your head until you find, without even realizing it, that it\u2019s all you can think about. <\/p>\n
The album opens with the synth-keys\/acoustic guitar marriage of \u201cOslo,\u201d in which Lyseid transports us to the greenness of Norway\u2019s capital city as he laments a lost romance \u2013 but since \u201cOslo is a small, small town,\u201d he knows he will see her again. Like the five songs on Spit Back At The Rain<\/i>, \u201cOslo\u201d leans heavily on the sweet mixture of Lyseid\u2019s accented voice and the gentle guitar accompaniment, but it introduces a new element not seen on Spit<\/i>. The added use of the harmonica, on \u201cOslo\u201d as well as many other songs on the album, offers a new dimension to what Lyseid has already created and, primarily played along with the keys and guitar during moments of vocal rest, provides an almost wistful accompaniment to the listener\u2019s moments of reflection.<\/p>\n
Lyseid\u2019s work with Monzano was marked by the use of electric and synthesized instruments under a more somber lyrical and musical approach, but Little Hands opts for a much more melodically charged venture. The subject matter is not always cheerful \u2013 \u201cBait,\u201d featuring only an acoustic guitar and Lyseid\u2019s gently shaking voice, is an introspective moment of sensitivity describing \u201cthe awkwardness of passing friends\u201d \u2013 but sad moments like those are countered by feel-good cuts like \u201cEating Fish In Hamburger Heaven,\u201d a tongue-in-cheek, upbeat number swirling around Springsteen-esque country rollicks. Though the style of music itself is not particularly inventive (honestly, how many folk-pop projects are around these days?), Lyseid manages to take the style and make it his own with his imaginative storytelling scope and ambition.<\/p>\n
Like fellow Norwegian Sondre Lerche, a major part of Lyseid\u2019s appeal is his lyrical honesty and its ability to make you feel like you\u2019re engaging in a conversation with him. Though his native tongue is not English, his command of emotion and wit is admirable, often verging on a charismatic brand of shy awkwardness (the Seth Cohen kind where you just want to hug them). \u201cHighway\u2019s Pull,\u201d with its rolling night-time harmonies, demonstrates this lyrical perfection best as Lyseid takes an escapist drive away from the problems in his life and finds that it doesn\u2019t actually help at all: <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m talking about cards \/ While the past comes in on broken wings \/ To crash in your backyard \/ And I\u2019m picking every syllable apart \/ In those breathless conversations \/ That I\u2019ve memorized by heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leap years only come around every few years and, even though this album wasn\u2019t released during an actual leap year, after a few listens its name makes perfect sense. Norway\u2019s answer to Conor Oberst seems aware of the fact that he has crafted something truly special that is not a common experience \u2013 2009 is not a leap year, but this record, in all its beauty and openness, is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":29892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8398],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41513","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-little-hands-of-asphalt","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41513"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}