Thomas Dybdahl

In falsetto mode Thomas Dybdahl is like a Scandinavian Antony Hegarty as his soft operatic voice brushes against tasteful pianos, vibraphones, picked acoustic guitars and pedal steel. At other points he’s more like the frequently copied and hence overly-familiar Jeff Buckley. And then again, in quieter and less melodramatic moments, he’s a softer, sibilant, almost Nick Drakesque presence. Generally it’s all lovely and pretty, very well put together, and very much in keeping with the slowly fading folk zeitgeist.
That said, it doesn’t do anything particularly striking or idiosyncratically Dybdahlesque to differentiate itself from the other new-acoustic pretenders lining up to soundtrack your heartaches, comedowns, and gentle joss-stick infused depressions. Some of the album’s seeming rootlessness could be explained by the fact that this is a compilation of Dybdahl’s three Scandinavian-released albums. Besides, lovely chugging folk torch-songs such as ‘From Grace’ and ‘Be A Part’ are probably worth the price all on their own.