{"id":46433,"date":"2022-09-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/surface-sounds\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:08","slug":"surface-sounds","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/surface-sounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Surface Sounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaleo\u2014the striking, charismatic Icelandic quartet that made a splash last decade with a series of singles culminating in 2016\u2019s memorable<\/a> international debut A\/B\u2014<\/i>returned five long years later with Surface Sounds<\/i>, an album that presents listeners with as many questions as answers. To wit:<\/p>\n

Is this a true album or just a patchwork collection of recent recordings?<\/i><\/p>\n

The answer isn\u2019t clear. Due in part to the pandemic, the 11 tracks on Surface Sounds<\/i> were compiled from a range of sessions from around the country and across the world; opener \u201cBrother Run Fast\u201d alone lists studios in Chicago, Nashville, Reykjavik, Athens, and Pittsburgh. Most of the album is co-produced by Nashville\u2019s Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Brandi Carlile) and Kaleo frontman\/songwriter JJ Julius Son, but there\u2019s also one co-produced by Mike Elizondo (\u201cBreak My Baby\u201d), and album closer \u201cInto My Mother\u2019s Arms\u201d is a self-produced Julius Son solo track. <\/p>\n

Did the band\u2019s sound evolve in the half-decade that lapsed between<\/i> A\/B and<\/i> Surface Sounds?<\/i><\/p>\n

Yes and no. They still veer between passionate acoustic folk-pop and thundering electric blues-rock in a manner that inevitably harks back to Led Zeppelin, without ever sounding much like them. They do push the envelope a bit here with Cobb at the boards, adding a horn section to one tune, strings to a couple, and a vocal choir to several, but the fundamentals of the Kaleo sound\u2014which is all about depth of field and muscular dynamics creating drama\u2014remain intact. For example, you can feel Cobb\u2019s influence in the orchestral sweep of tunes like strings-and-choir-augmented opener \u201cBrother Run Fast,\u201d but at its core the song is textbook Kaleo: all whispery, simmering tension until booming drums and bass enter, and then powerful vocals over the top. <\/p>\n

Is there anything here as instantly captivating as <\/i>A\/B singles \u201cWay Down We Go\u201d and \u201cNo Good\u201d?<\/i><\/p>\n

Almost but not quite. \u201cBreak My Baby\u201d\u2014previewed in single form months before Surface Sounds<\/i> emerged\u2014echoes \u201cWay Down We Go\u201d by opening with an evocative wordless chant that\u2019s soon punctuated by big drums and distortion-heavy guitar. It\u2019s well-constructed and packs a punch even if it doesn\u2019t really offer anything new. And then the borderline disturbing lyric (\u201cI want to break my baby \/ Hold her down \/ Bring her down now\u201d) devolves at the bridge into a not-so-veiled dig at the music industry: \u201cThey\u2019ll take you in \/ And spit you out \/ You\u2019re only worth how much you sell.\u201d <\/p>\n

Are Julius Son\u2019s vocals any easier to understand than they were on <\/i>A\/B? <\/i><\/p>\n

It has to be tremendously challenging to write and sing in a language other than your native tongue. Kaleo\u2019s first single back in 2013 (\u201cVor \u00cd Vaglask\u00f3gi\u201d) was an Icelandic-language tune, but everything since has been in English and at times Julius Son\u2019s accent complicates matters. \u201cAlter Ego\u201d is a cool tune that starts out big and fast, adding a little Texas boogie chug before getting greasier and glammier, but I couldn\u2019t have guessed what the song is about without looking at the lyric sheet; I understood about half of every other line the first time through. The same was true for \u201cBrother Run Fast\u201d and \u201cMy Fair Lady,\u201d both of whose titles I had to look up on the lyric sheet, as my ears heard something entirely different.<\/p>\n

Does it matter?<\/i><\/p>\n

Not really. Kaleo is one of those bands that\u2019s all about the sound: at the core of their music there\u2019s a restraint and tension; you always feel like any Kaleo song could erupt into something dramatically larger at any moment. They exist inside that hard\/soft, quiet\/loud dynamic, which extends even to the vocals, where Julius Son deploys both his deep, growly natural register and a piercing falsetto; this is captivating, high-contrast music. <\/p>\n

What are the songs about?<\/i><\/p>\n

Scanning the lyric sheet doesn\u2019t bring as much clarity as one might hope; there\u2019s a lot of vague, somewhat grandiose musing and a smattering of questionable judgment. \u201cFree The Slave\u201d narrates a lynching before the very Caucasian Julius Son asks the audience \u201cWon\u2019t you free the slave in me\u201d; it\u2019s one of those situations where good intentions struggle to overcome a cringe-y result. Same goes for \u201cSkinny,\u201d a tirade against the fame machine that interpolates with a vicious fight between lovers; on close examination it appears well-intended, but on first listen it didn\u2019t land that way.<\/p>\n

A horn section? Seriously?<\/i><\/p>\n

Seriously. \u201cHey Gringo\u201d feels closer to a mainstream pop-rock song than just about anything Kaleo has done before, a mid-tempo number that evolves into an r&b vamp featuring harmonica and horns. The most surprising part is, it sounds good\u2014hats off to Cobb for applying a little of his Muscle Shoals magic to this one.<\/p>\n

Should a band that hasn\u2019t released an album in five years be able to deliver one that doesn\u2019t feel like it has any filler?<\/i><\/p>\n

You might think so, but the back half of this album features a pair of mid-tempo acoustic numbers (\u201cMy Fair Lady\u201d and \u201cI Want More\u201d) that amount to a pleasant diversion; there\u2019s just not much to them. And they\u2019re followed by one of the lesser examples of the band\u2019s crunchy blues-rock, the tediously macho \u201cBackbone\u201d (\u201cYou\u2019ve got your \/ Back against the wall \/ Say, where\u2019s your backbone brother\u201d). <\/p>\n

Is Kaleo actually still a band?<\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to ask this question when presented with substantial evidence to the contrary. First and foremost is the album\u2019s booklet, which prominently features two quotes from Julius Son talking about \u201cmy music\u201d and thanking \u201ceveryone who contributed to Surface Sounds<\/i>.\u201d Meanwhile he is credited as writer, co-producer, and first-billed performer on every track, no other band members are pictured, and the one song here with a co-writer\u2014drummer David Antonsson\u2014finds the latter sharing drumming duties with a session player. Meanwhile Antonsson and bassist Daniel Kristjansson are absent from both the opening and closing tracks, guitarist Ruben Pollock is missing from the aforementioned closer, and Thorleifur Davidsson is listed as a band member but doesn\u2019t play at all on the album. <\/p>\n

By the time you get to the Julius Son solo track that closes the album, you can\u2019t help but speculate about a possible case of that notorious affliction L.S.D. (Lead Singer Disease), exemplified by the moment in the fourth minute of \u201cAlter Ego\u201d when Pollock steps up to take a beautiful, aggressive electric solo and Julius Son keeps screaming over him. Dude: it\u2019s not your turn. <\/p>\n

A flash of understanding arrived when I read that the band\u2019s name means \u201cthe voice\u201d in Hawaiian; maybe that\u2019s how Julius Son has always seen Kaleo\u2014as simply a platform for his voice. Too bad then, because the impact the group\u2019s music achieves is derived at least as much from the band\u2019s powerhouse playing as from Julius Son\u2019s considerable vocal talent, and Kaleo\u2019s most apparent weakness is his lyrics. <\/p>\n

Surface Sounds<\/i> is a solid, at times impressive album from a talented band with a distinctive and compelling sound. You know a Kaleo song when you hear one, and that\u2019s a good thing. The big question they still have to face is an existential one: who is Kaleo?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9840],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46433","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kaleo","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46433","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46433"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}