While Finally We Are No One was a smidge more mesmerizing, in my opinion, a mild preference for that album shouldn’t preclude us from heaping deserved praise on the release that, for múm (and to be cliché), “started it all,” and which took some of the international heat away from that other Icelandic band that was just getting going at the time.
múm’s debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK originally came out in 1999, and as official press from the Morr Music label aptly points out, it was one of the first releases to blend electronic and folk elements in a way that didn’t end up sounding like the musical manifestation of that dog prepping a science experiment. Figures that a group from the subarctic would produce one of the warmest and coziest records of all time. When’s Australia gonna make me feel like I have hypothermia?
2019 means that it’s been 20 years since Yesterday came out; and celebrating the time interval, múm and Morr Music are releasing a remastered version of the album, which, in addition to featuring the original tracks, will contain seven “re-works” composed by various other artists. µ-Ziq gets in on “There Is A Number Of Small Things” and “The Ballad Of The Broken Birdie Records,” for instance. Likewise for Kronos Quartet and “Smell Memory.” Hauschka’s rendition of “Random Summer” should be nice and trinket-filled.
The reissue is out August 30 on 3xLP, 2xCD, and digital. Go here to pre-order, and stream a few tracks from that dramatic old YESTERDAY-VERSION of the album below:
Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK, TOMORROW-VERSION:
01. I’m 9 Today
02. Smell Memory
03. There Is A Number Of Small Things
04. Random Summer
05. Asleep On A Train
06. Awake On A Train
07. The Ballad Of The Broken Birdie Records
08. The Ballad Of The Broken String
09. Sunday Night Just Keeps On Rolling
10. Slow Bicycle
11. The Ballað Of The Broken Birdie Records (Ruxpin Remix II)
12. Smell Memory (Bix Remix)
13. There Is A Number Of Small Things & The Ballad Of The Broken Birdie Records (µ-Ziq Straight Mix)
14. The Ballad Of The Broken Birdie Records (Biogen Mix)
15. Smell Memory (Kronos Quartet)
16. Random Summer (Hauschka)
17. Ballad Of The Broken String (Sóley)
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