If you haven’t been following this blog lately, then you should be aware that I’m a fan of Hatari. Been listening to them since their announcement to compete for Songvakeppnin 2019 and still listening to them since Eurovision 2019. In fact, I somewhat interact with the Reddit community in r/hatari.
So when it was announced that Hatari’s newest album was going to be released on the 17th of January, I was really excited! I mean, the hype train started to take motion when someone in the subreddit showed their YouTube copyright claims on their hatari videos.
After giving it some time and listening to it once or twice, here are my thoughts on Hatari’s newest album – Neyslutrans.
PS: I will try to be unbiased as possible
First Impressions
Listening to the whole album gave me Muse – Resistance and Drones vibes. I guess it’s the orchestral music that gave me that feeling, along with the fact that the songs in the album are about hopelessness or submitting to the inevitability of the end.
Album art is quite off-putting in my opinion. I guess I just don’t know the context and people are saying that the girl featured will be seen in the upcoming Engin Miskunn music video (still unconfirmed).
What I want to discuss though is the price of the album. This, I want to compare it to K-pop album, more specifically – BTS Love Yourself: Answer.
You see, in the new Hatari album, there are 5 songs that were sold in other albums and singles. And some of them existed WAYYY before Hatari was announced for Songvakeppnin (eg: Spillingardans [2018]).
So we’re paying €20 for an album with 8 new songs.
If we compare this with BTS albums, Answer had songs come back from the ‘Her’ and ‘Tear’ versions like Fake Love, Singularity, Best of me, etc. This album cost similar to how much I will be paying for Neyslutrans (thanks Australia). So despite my ‘fomo’ kicking in, part of me is also like ‘Is it worth getting the album if I’m being sold similar songs‘?. I mean, I know singles get released before the final product but they’re usually at least 1 or 2 in a 10 song album.
Ok, so apparently, people didn’t like the BTS comparison (fair nuff, people don’t like Kpop). The reason I chose those albums is becuse it shares a similar point about releasing the same songs over and over and you question how much you’re paying for. But since nobody liked it, here is a new one.
Sergey Lazarev – Russia’s representative in 2016 and 2019. Whenever he releases albums (or his older ones at least), some of the songs, at least 3 or 4, came from other singles from a a year ago or two like Lucky Stanger or Идеальный мир (idealniy mir). In Discogs, an album is like $60 inc shipping.
This is where the song review kicks in.
Song Reviews
Side note: getting my translations here!
Spillingardans, Klámstrákur, Klefi / صامد (featuring Bashar Murad)
These songs are from the existing singles that were released prior. If you want to thoughts prior, here is my review for Klamstakur and Spillingardans was briefly mentioned here.
For Klefi, it’s a good collab with Bashar Murad. Icelandic with Arabi is an interesting language mix that somewhat worked well in the song.
Engin Miskunn
Good first song. It sets the mood on what to expect and the general theme of Hatari. That there is no mercy, that they live through this dystopia where all hope and love is lost. That the end is near if we don’t do something about it.
Þræll
Literally one of my fave songs in the album. On the surface level, it sounds like a song about being a submissive in a sexual relationship/arrangement. I do question if it’s a healthy one or are we dealing with something ‘lowkey abusive’ as portrayed in Fekete Részem by AWS (Hungary 2018).[Context: people think that based on the song’s music video, that it’s an abusive sexual relationship that he’s not enjoying]
Hlauptu (featuring CYBER)
This feels like a revamp from the original and I quite like it. It just sounds cleaner compared to the original so I got to appreciate it more. The intro felt more sinister which kinda match the theme of the song (I guess – I’m basing it off translations found online).
Spectavisti Me Mori, Op. 8 (featuring Pétur Björnsson) & Nunquam Iterum, Op. 12 (featuring Friðrik Margrétar)
The orchestral/choir music is just… wow. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing but it just felt alright I guess. Not that it’s bad, it’s just an interesting mix to the album itself.
14 Ár
Without knowing what the song is about, the vocal contrast between Matthias and Klemens is really interesting. Gives of a weird harmonic feeling that you rarely get when you mix screaming with heavenly falsetto.
According to Hatari-Translations, this song is about manipulation and being in a toxic relationship (or at least that’s what’s being portrayed in the lyrics).
Overall, a song about toxic relationship is interesting as it allows us to discuss how bad this is and we have the right to leave. And knowing that Matthias is the victim in the song gives off an interesting view on how we interpret him as. Cuz normally, Matthias is portrayed as the dictator (eg: Hatrid Mun Sigra) – but THE VICTIM?!?!? THE ONE WHO IS HURT!?!?!? OMG… maybe Matthias portrays the pain, hurt, and hopelessness that we feel has humans rather than a soulless/merciless leader.
Also – the title of the song in English is 14 years… 14 YEARS?!?!? OMG….
Ógleði
It’s an alright song. I don’t have that much to say about them. Ógleði is very heavenly though despite it Klemens is talking about feeling sick and disgusted. So gotta appreciate the contrast.
Helvíti (featuring Svarti Laxness)
I love rapping. Lately, I’ve been having a lowkey appreciation for Icelandic Rap (mostly from Kròli and JoiPè) so being introduced to another Icelandic rapper is quite beneficial.
This entire song is a rap – with only Svarti Laxness performing in it. The song is about being in hell or in a hell-like environment. So it’s not like he’s dead or anything. If we follow the idea that Hatari lives in a dystopian future of our society, I might assume we’re living in a Mad max/gang-like political landscape where it’s ruled by dictators. So a start of a dystopian society.
This is also another favourite song of mine in the album.
Niðurlút (featuring GDRN)
Apparently this song shares similar lyrics to Nunquam Iterum, Op. 12. I wouldn’t know cuz I don’t speak the language. I have not much to say about this song asides from it’s a good song to end the album with. It’s mellow and less harsh so it’s a good way to conclude it all.
Hatrið Mun Sigra (Xtended)
So… I know Hatari is known for their jokes and ‘messing around’ but when we first found out that there was going to be an extended version, we thought more was going to be added, like new lyrics. But instead, the first few beats of the intro at the start was just played three times before the snare kicked in. So literally, nothing was added and it’s just the same song.
As a Hatari fan, I kinda got the joke… sort off. They like to mess around, be hypocrites, and sometimes don’t take interviews seriously. But as a listener and a Eurovision fan, this kinda infuriated me because I was kinda hoping for more. You can’t put just ‘xtended’ to a song and put something that little.
To my current knowledge, 2 Eurovision song had extended versions and it added more meaning to the one that was submitted. An example – Dance You Off by Benjamin Ingrosso (Sweden 2018).
Dance You Off – Extended Version
As you can see, more lyrics was added and it just added more meaning to the original, especially since Eurovision has a 3-minute limit to their submissions. So I guess this song begs to question ‘how much are we paying for, for the name itself‘.
Overall thoughts – Is it worth the €20???
At the end of the day, music is hard to produce and after visiting Iceland in 2019, I learned that making CD’s in the country is even harder. For me, I will buy it since I’m a fan of the band, the songs are good, and it’s nice to have a physical copy.
The songs are good. Nice to see some singles return (but it’s odd since they’re from 2018 and prior). The album kinda messes around the theme on purchasing something cuz of the band name itself (in regards to the idea of buying something) and the idea of various forms of dystopias/forms of hopelessness (song-wise). The song likes play with various themes of society, relationships, mental health, politics that it’s quite nice and fits into what Hatari is about.
I’d give it 4/5 – mostly because I’d like to hear a cleaner version of other songs that were performed live like Dansið eða deyið and fans thought it was gonna be there but wasn’t. I guess I wanted more variety in the albums rather than just hearing similar songs for nearly half of the album.
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