A Mouthful of Dø

Olivia is Finnish, Dan is from France. Both have there roots in Jazz, with Paris as their hometown. "A Mouthful" is their debut record, and my first of 2008. Defined in one word: Playful.

The record starts of in a kind of Byork style with "Playground Hustle". It heavily relies on the drums, with a cute children’s choir on the back. A bit later in the song the synthesisers start to kick in, and it gets an almost modern R'n'B sound.

"At Last" settles down completely as a nice guitar-pop song. It kind of reminds me of the Cardigans. It is a song sung by a girl who has finally found the love that she was dreaming of. The thing that makes this song special is that she directly talks to the listener with lines such as "Won’t make it harder on you girls". It's a very intimate song.


Olivia's vocals on "on my shoulders" are a bit more distressed and thin. In a world where vocal perfection is the standard in pop music, it is nice to hear a voice which isn’t perfect. It fits the song. "Song for lovers" continues the more laid-back feeling that the previous two song started. It's a plain and beautiful song. "The Bridge is broken" reminds me of PJ Harvey. It has that raw feeling to it, with minimal instrumentation, and those tormented/kind of sexy vocals.

"Stay" is another great and cute little song. Almost a sing-a-long. "Unissasi Laulelet" hypnotises you with it's tribal rhythms. This band has it's influences from many directions, and isn’t afraid to display them all on one record. That might lead to a very incoherent record, but Olivia's voice provides you with a red line to hold on to. The guitars in "Tammie" make it sound a bit like Radiohead, it has a bit of gloomy quality on it.

When I first listened this record these first 8 songs went in quite easily. Then came "Queen Dot Kong". It has a style for it's own. It sounds like...hiphop mixed with a bit of Balkan beat, a Peter Gabrielesk piano and bass section with a creative use of sampling. That Peter Gabrielesk part especially comes forward in "Coda", which is kind of an outtro for the shock that is "Queens Dot Kong". A positive shock of course. The following songs are again a lot more mellow, with "Aha" being the most notable. You could compare it's sound with some of the Britpop band out there.
Finally, "In my box" ends the record as it started.

"A Mouthful" is a very versatile record. It borrows little pieces of almost every genre of music and combines them to create an indefinable sound. It's a very playful record made by people who don’t let their creativity by bounded by the borders of a certain genre. Made by people with an open mind. I love it.