Written by: Eric Thompson

First thing’s first: Alice Boman’s EP II is not for everybody. I am well aware of my own penchant for a certain type of atmosphere-heavy minimalism in songwriting. This album is the work of a person obsessed with the intricacies of a song, with the feeling that a slight hesitation or the static that recording on an old four track impart to it. The record actually begins with over ten seconds of wordless vocals. Lyrically, it is heavy on relationships, on the knots they tie us into. This may sound boring, or even tedious. But there is also this: EP II is downright gorgeous. This is the type of music that could lure a sentimental soul into the sea. These eleven tracks work like a slow rip tide. You wade in and it just feels nice. You bob along, feeling the texture of the salt water, tasting it. Next thing you know you’re three hundred yards out and not sure how it happened. Given enough time, this record will make you shake your head and laugh-cry into your keyboard. The lyrics are confessional, naked. Boman tackles her romantic quandaries with a forthrightness that is the stuff of relationship envy. (“When you look at me / I feel all exposed.”) They are not poetry. Or, if they are, it is the adolescent sort present in any college writing workshop. Even so, Boman’s voice is more than enchanting enough to make them worthwhile. But it’s the sonic landscapes that these delicately sung words meander through, interact with, that give them such force. These songs, almost all of them, are so compositionally insightful that it drives a listener’s heart berserk. What puts them over the top, though, is Boman’s ultra-refined sense of atmospherics. Not content to write a merely pretty, soulful tune, she tasks herself with the complete immersion of the listener in her psychological milieu. These are not just songs. They are compositions of a rarefied nature. And, like all rare things, they somehow labor the heart even as they soothe it.

EP II is literally two EP’s run back to back. Boman, a native of Malmö, Sweden, put out Skissers (translated: sketches) last year as a Europe-only release with Adrian Recordings. Those songs make up the back half of EP II. It begins with the six new tracks. Awkward as this may be, I’m going to cover the latter part of the record, the old stuff, first. As the Skissers title suggests, we find Boman here still working things out somewhat. Not so much as a songwriter—the songs themselves are fully realized—but as a recording artist. Before Boman even strikes a note on “Waiting,” there is the hiss of an outdated four track and a small thump as if Boman accidentally grazed a microphone getting to her piano after she hit record. Any fans of the Mountain Goats’ All Hail West Texas will immediately recognize (and revel in) this DIY trope. The star of this part of the record is “Skiss 3.” It is a subtly building and disarming piece. The synthesizers waver in an out next to the lilting piano melody like candles in front of a breeze addled window. And, as always, Boman’s voice just carries it all away.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJWluaW91us&w=560&h=315]

 

The final track, “What Are You Searching For,” also needs to be mentioned. This plaintive sonic brushstroke hits you right in the chest. Like a really great recipe, there’s no one thing to point to and say, “this is what does it.” The layered vocals, the muffled kick drum, the high piano notes towards the end of a predominantly mid-range song: it’s all of it. And it’s all hurtfully pretty.

Which brings us to the new tracks, the beginning of the record. These are somewhat better produced. Boman, however, hasn’t given up the minimalist aesthetic. The compositions are still quite naked. It’s just as if they are better lit by a degree, as if another candle or two is flickering in the room. They also find her stepping away from the piano. EP II’s first single, “Over,” is carried along on a synth beat and organ. “You know I need the darkness / Just as much as I need the light / You know I need solitude / Just as much as I need you by my side.” Alice is still Alice, her voice effortlessly spellbinding. But it’s clear she has chosen to spread her music out a bit.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhPocxH3bL4&w=420&h=315]

 

 

“Be Mine” begins with that telltale old-recorder-static. But then we get treated to some scratchy sounding horns through the chorus. “You don’t have to speak / Just keep me company.” And “Lead Me.” Just listening to the way that wobbly guitar compliments those repeated vocal swoons, it’s hard to even manage.

I’ve lost a pretty significant amount of time to EP II over the past few days. Whatever you do, keep an eye on the shore.