A Quick Fix of Melancholy

Now busy hearing every Ulver release ever, I of course tracked their most acclaimed EP “A Quick Fix of Melancholy”. On the first initial spin it already struck me how good this was but it wasn’t until further listens that this EP struck me as really utterly fantastic. Consisting of only 4 songs, each song sounds quite different from one another, but the EP as a whole does have a vibe surrounding it that creates an atmosphere making the EP sounds like a whole after all and not just a random collection of tracks. The only song that might fall out of the bunch is the final one with its folksy touch where the rest is all electronics.
If you liked perdition city a lot, this is probably where you’ll find their best work to date with just a couple of songs. Minimalism is the key word to “A Quick Fix of Melancholy” and Ulver explores this genre like I have never heard before. With electronic looped piano tunes and even an electronic remix of Nattleite from their second release Kveldsanger. 2 of the songs here are instrumentals and the other 2 with vocals are both half instrumental as well. Still it doesn’t stop Rygg from shining on here like he has never done before. His best vocal performances ever are on the opening track little blue bird, on vowels he even does an operatic voice which is actually quite stunning as well. A Quick Fix of Melancholy is a most fitting album title since all of the songs do live up to that name, a lot.
I’m not a person who gets sad when hearing melancholic music yet I myself am more the person that gets sad from hearing very bad music. I can still imagine that this might no be the best music to put on, on a party or even with friends. Listen to this alone, and listen to this a lot, it’s amazing and actually one of their best works.

Written for www.musicmademe.com