Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to the latest single from one of our favourites, Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends. My Face was released on May 12th.
We’ve previously reviewed Arn several times and have always been thoroughly impressed with this Sweden-based creative artist. His music has had touches of Musical Theatre, Supertramp, Dire Straits (to name just a few), and we’re always excited to see the name reach the top of our reviews pile.
On one level, My Face is about losing one’s grip. Losing meaning, love, integrity and life itself. On another level, it is also a celebration of art and music. My Face is the closing song on the forthcoming album, No Sweets For E.
The song begins with strings, slow strums and Arn’s recognisable vocals. The opening line really sets the scene; “This is my face, There’s nothing I can do about it, My doctor says, I really shouldn’t leave without it.”
Effortlessly blending folk into folk rock, the song builds momentum as the drums join in and the vocals become layered with some lovely subtle harmonies. My Face has a real lo-fi and unaffected feel to it. It has superb rise and fall with numerous instrumentation changes but doesn’t feel like a huge production track. Definitely a great choice for the last song of an album, My Face encapsulates a great deal of the things we’ve come to know and love about Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends.
There is great definition between sections in this track – we particularly liked the section with the definite nod to the Beatles, and at times the song has a 60s folk/pop element that is undeniably authentic.
An instrumental section based around strings and guitars brings in some gorgeous extra instrumentation and keeps the listener thoroughly engaged with some exciting builds until it drops back again for a gentle ending that echoes the intro.
Ideas from our ears
A cut around 80Hz would reduce some low end ‘boominess’. A larger cut at 190-200Hz in the vocal track would also control a slightly ‘muddy’ peak. Overall the track could use some extra top end. To our ears, the best way to achieve this would be with a single band compressor on the top 2 octaves with maybe 5dB of make-up gain. Lastly, a light compressor/limiter with maybe 4dB of make-up gain would add to the warmth in the track as well as raising the volume slightly. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
Arn-Identified Flying Objects and Alien Friends are consistently producing music to delight the ears. Always keeping us on our toes, this latest track is a triumphant closing track to the latest album, No Sweets For E; a stunning display of musicianship. Highly recommended.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4qw8JsPgdrMpDFeTwaaCCD?si=ejorGNJOSn6zcx4nX_lzHw
https://www.instagram.com/andalienfriends/
https://www.facebook.com/arne.floryd