- Nine years after "Eurodans," his 2004 breakthrough EP, Todd Terje is finally releasing his debut album: It's Album Time. Given the wry grin of that title and Bendik Kaltenborn's outrageous cover art, it's only fitting that It's Album Time is a saucy trip through all of the influences that Terje has nodded to over his career. Across its 60 minutes, there are loose-hipped lounge tracks, funky jazz noodlings, Italo epics and humid piano house stormers. All of this is stitched into such a heady trip of sonic extravagance it's sometimes hard to stop and draw a breath.
It's Album Time includes some of Terje's greatest tracks from the past few years: "Strandbar," "Inspector Norse" and both parts of "Swing Star" are all here. "Leisure Suit Preben," the record's first full track, is stumbling, half-drunk piano jazz very much of a piece with the album's cover art. Then there's the absurdly funny "Svensk Sas," a hyper-speed sashay of Nordic salsa. "Alfonso Muskedunder," meanwhile, is a playful, waltz-like number with jazzy drum fills and a dizzying amount of scatting. The gorgeous, Vangelis-esque crawl of "Johnny And Mary," a Robert Palmer cover with guest vocals from Bryan Ferry, serves as something of a mid-album respite before the record sets back for the summit.
For those looking to revisit the anthemic glories of Terje's recent hits, there are only a couple of new tracks that set their sights so directly skyward. "Delorean Dynamite" opens with a heartthrob arpeggio before sliding through one Olympian melody after another. "Old Joy" most closely approximates the peak-time swoon Terje's recently made his name on, with a twirling synthesizer melody that evolves into a burst of day-glo arpeggios before the drums finally break in. Given the ubiquity of some of this material, It's Album Time is a little tricky to assess on its own merit. But with tracks like "Delorean Dynamite," "Johnny And Mary," and "Old Joy," there are certainly plenty of grandiose stretches to keep us satisfied. And when we eventually return to the album, it won't matter what was fresh and what wasn't—we'll just want Terje to cast his summer enchantments over us anew.
Tracklist01. Intro (It's Album Time)
02. Leisure Suit Preben
03. Preben Goes To Acapulco
04. Svensk Sås
05. Strandbar
06. Delorean Dynamite
07. Johnny And Mary feat. Bryan Ferry
08. Alfonso Muskedunder
09. Swing Star Part I
10. Swing Star Part II
11. Oh Joy
12. Inspector Norse