When Sigur Rós' breakthrough sophomore record-- the perpetually lingering Agaetis Byrjun-- was released internationally in late 2001, ecstatic scribes across the globe simultaneously tensed and paused, curling over their cheap notebooks, chewing on ballpoint pens, and trying, desperately and collectively, to conjure the perfect glacial metaphor, to birth a descriptor appropriately gnarled and vast, to ink the impeccable (and inevitable) line from Iceland's craggy landscapes to Sigur Rós' dark, desolate compositions.
Since then, Iceland's sprawling horizon has become an oddly ubiquitous touchstone for describing contemporary American music, with loads of new bands snatching their spectral bits from Sigur Rós' massive arsenal of otherworldliness. Tristeza's Jimmy LaValle, who has been recording spare, instrumental hymnals as The Album Leaf since late 1998, is the closest North American equivalent to the pale Nordic maestro, and his pockets are well-stuffed with the papers to prove it: After touring extensively with Sigur Rós (who frequently joined LaValle onstage), LaValle was shuttled-via-invite to Mosfellsbaer, Iceland to record at Sundlaugin, Sigur Rós' home studio, borrowing their string section, Amina, and collaborating with vocalist Jon Thor Birgisson and members of (fellow Icelandic howlers) Múm.
The resulting record, The Album Leaf's third, is a collection of wispy rock songs peppered with sputtering beats, vocals, Moog, and gently whining strings. Curiously, LaValle's portrait of Iceland presents a far cooler vision than his guides' ever have: In a Safe Place is occasionally chilling, a studied, calming slice of icy serenity. With tinkling Rhodes piano, glockenspiel, and subtly propulsive percussion, In a Safe Place is the sound of slowing down; the record feels tired-but-satisfied, like crawling home after a long night of misadventures, burrowing into the backseat of a cab, squinting your eyes at the light buzzing across the horizon, tying your shoes, and thinking hard about blankets. LaValle has always masterfully straddled the thin, gray stretch between Saturday night debauch and Sunday morning remorse, and In a Safe Place exists almost exclusively in the moments where nothing feels quite real, the place LaValle calls "safe."
The Album Leaf is a solo effort, but LaValle is famously collaborative (he's also been tangled up with The Locust and GoGoGo Airheart), and, in addition to Birgisson, The Black Heart Procession's Pall Jenkins is often present to coo along to LaValle's gleaming cuts. Still, it's LaValle's own vocal contributions-- his first time singing with The Album Leaf-- that hit first and hardest. "On Your Way" sees LaValle chanting carefully along with Jenkins, singing high and flat over a pinging bit of melodic space-pop; their respective imperfections shine like bits of red mitten stuck to a frozen window, awkward and stupidly beautiful. Birgisson's contribution-- the impeccably weird "Over the Pond"-- is sung in his trademark Hopelandic, and features backing samples of his own vocals, whirled into cartoon hysterics. "Over the Pond" is insistently haunting, a meditative, piano-heavy examination of intangibles, as satisfying as it is vague.
Detractors will be sure to note that In a Safe Place can feel numbingly repetitive at moments, but all that expansive diddling contributes equally to the record's allure: Like rolling past the North Pole or through West Texas, this record plays with its own redundancies, building an entire universe from strange, barren pieces. In the end, it all spins into nothing.
