Man of Aran

This is not your usual British Sea Power collection, however, it does feature many of the group’s strongest attributes in unfiltered form. Man of Aran is the soundtrack to a film made in 1934 (!) that focuses on the day-to-day survival of the struggling fishermen of Western Ireland’s remote and barren Aran Islands outside of Galway Bay. This mostly instrumental collection — “Come Wander With Me,” a tune featured in a Twilight Zone episode, is the one vocal moment and it’s hardly a cheery one — features plenty of slow-moving sonics that take full advantage of their glacial pace. “The South Sound” is a mesmerizing eleven-and-a-half minutes of slowly emerging sunlight over a foggy wasteland. Singling out individual tracks seems almost unfair, since it’s the album’s overall gestalt that makes for its impact. There are no peaks, just lulling moments of meditational power where you can feel the isolation and its luminous beauty. A bit like Sigur Rós, but a tad warmer.