SCARY MUZAK

Ulver's spookfest? 2021's 'Scary Muzak' is a surprise album by the Norwegian electronic and art rock band, essentially a pretend-soundtrack/score, posing as a celebration of the band members' love for the horror movie genre and the Halloween spirit - all good, but this recording could briefly be disregarded as a boring collection of spooky tunes, scooped up after an unsuccessful Halloween teen party. Well, there might have been a slice of exaggeration here, but the truth is that this so-called studio album is uneventful, absolutely forgettable, unimpressive and quickly tiresome, with all of its dry and already-heard instrumentals (they make them the same in every scary movie).

Moreover, it is a fabulous disappointment if we take it as the follow-up to the previous two synthpop releases by the band, 'Flowers of Evil' and 'The Assassination' - while 'Scary Muzak' might have some glimpses of these aforementioned release, it is the very pale, much weaker and severely less entertaining brother of theirs, and while this one tends to fit the synthwave label more, the fact that it fails to keep the listener attentive is a certain sign that something is wrong. I imagine that if this was to be reduced almost half in length and released as an EP, it might have been received better. Some of the songs are fine, but most of 'Scary Muzak' is just filler and really sounds like leftovers from previous recording sessions.