Murmansk
Chinese locks
Around Your Neck
"Vague language" alone is testament to the fact that there was enough of value in 90s music for Murmansk to draw from, to combine into their own register, and this second track of "Chinese locks" flickers alive in ways that I can only remember moments of Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins songs comparing to. The opening title-track prepares listeners for an onslaught similar to that of Mew's "And the glass handed kites", where equal emphasis is placed on the energies of the guitar and drum work, in the end building up an intriguingly thick soundscape of instrumentation. The first breakdown of "Nothing but the moon" is one of the more epic interludes I have heard in a while, not necessarily in its scope, but in its execution: resounding, thunderous drums punctuating layered guitars, wisps of soft vocals floating just above the fray; and this theme is repeated throughout the remaining breakdowns of the song. This amalgamation of the grunge themes of the 1990s with the more expansive sound of acts like Mew is worked and reworked throughout the album, the focal influence shifting all the way through, and thus it never starts to feel formulaic.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
