I always had a kind of strange relationship with Ulver’s releases. Every time when Garm and his group delivered a new album I would end up being more or less disappointed with it. Even with Perdition City, one of the best dark electronica records ever, the sound would often go into more obscure directions, coloring the songs with messy avant-garde colors that aren’t pretty to look at.
I mean, I get it all, the artistic liberty to make tune as the artist seems fitting, the desire to create something unique, the aspiration to visit uncharted music territories. But the fact is that Rygg went south with his compositions way too often. And so with each new Ulver record, I would know even before spinning it for the first time that the album is composed out of a couple of superb tunes, followed by lots of hard-to-listen-to ramblings listenable only because you want to hear the record in its entirety.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not think Ulver produces garbage, but the fact is the band often takes its albums into uncharted territories of what would be an equivalent to postmodern art. You know, it’s there, we pretend to understand it, but we actually don’t.
This was the case with the latest record. I played The Assassination of Julius Caesar with the same expectations. A couple of killer tunes overshadowed by slow-paced musical experiments that would be great to hear as a soundtrack in some independent film, but not so great to hear on a proper music album. This time though, I was very, very wrong.
The Assassination of Julius Caesar is a masterpiece, a proper album filled with catchy songs that just brim with superb songwriting. The production is spotless, as with every offering by Ulver. The overall theme is revolving around synthpop sounds repacked into modern attires that look almost too good.
The album is the most accessible Ulver record ‘till date, even if we count their black metal days. Songs are so striking, so overwhelming to the senses, just so good. From the beginning and the moody Nemoralia telling the tale of how our society become an apathy-filled bunch of celebrity worshippers, to the 1969 and the journey to the Frisco where LaVey just founded his left-hand path church.
Other notable moments include the sexy Rolling Stone sounding better than anything Depeche Mode made in the last twenty years, So Falls the World that includes a phenomenal switch to the dark synth sound in the last third of the song, the magical Transverbation perfectly combining vintage sounds with modern production and the dark Angelus Novus.
The Assassination of Julius Caesar is the best album by Ulver, showing how the band could actually make a best seller, only if they wanted to. The record is incredibly catchy to listen to as a whole and should be checked out by literally everyone.
