Lára Rúnars has been busy of late. She has traveled as part of a band on the boat Húni, sailing from Icelandic port to port, raising money for the search and rescue teams. After that she toured remote venues in the north of Iceland with three other singer-songwriters, including Hafdís Huld.

Lára Rúnars has an outstanding voice, no doubt about that. However, on Moment, there are times when everything else detracts from this. At times, the tracks can sound dated, even 80’s. Not good 80’s. I don’t know whether this is intentional, but the synth swirls on ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’ or the awkward bass on ‘Victory’ are most unwelcome. The start of ‘Breathing’ sounds like the soundtrack to a old cop show.

It’s almost as if some record company mogul has decided unwisely, that this is Lára’s ‘breakthrough record’ and has tried as hard as possible to make it sound ‘mainstream.’ By this token ‘Beast’ would be the first single. It’s fine, especially when it’s just Lára over a sparse drumbeat.

Heartbeat is where Lára is best. Her vocal talents shine through. The music supports this, wrapping around her hushed, delicate vocals rather than fighting against them.

‘Shivering’ might suffer from being below par Kate Bush. ‘I Wanna Know’ and ‘Overrated’ again disappear back to the 80’s. It’s a shame, because the songs are there, just being played through some sort of distorting time machine. A complete rehash of the arrangements might just be the only remedy.

Original review on Iceland Review online.