Band:	Ulver
Album:	Liminal Animals
Style:	Electronic Avantgarde
Release date:	November 29, 2024
A review by:	RaduP

01. Ghost Entry
02. A City In The Skies
03. Forgive Us
04. Nocturne #1
05. Locusts
06. Hollywood Babylon
07. The Red Light
08. Nocturne #2
09. Helian (Trakl)

Well, I guess that's Ulver's lane now.

It was in my review of their previous album, Flowers Of Evil, that I've already raised an exclamation mark at the fact that Ulver, a band that has built a reputation of being chameleonic, was starting to repeat themselves by the mere fact of there already being two albums in a row that mostly dealt with the same sounds. I know that in the meantime the band has releases other albums, like Scary Muzak and Hexahedron (Live At Henie Onstad Kunstsenter) (both of which we reviewed), among a bunch of other live albums that didn't feature original material, but those felt more like projects on the side. When the bands started releasing singles regularly in this already familiar art pop style, it became clear that this is the mainline now.

In a way I have already reviewed this album, or at least a huge chunk of it. I've noticed this was a point of confusion for me and other people online asking how many times are Ulver gonna be releasing the exact same album again and again, albeit with an extra song, purely because websites like Spotify chose to package each new single release as an EP that included all the previously releases singles from the same cycle instead of just leaving the single by itself. With the news of Tore's passing, and with no full album announcement, I decided to include a writeup on what singles were released and unofficially packaged together by that time as a tribute to the musician, without knowing that more singles and a full album would come, nor that Tore was not apparently involved in the making of this album at all. Regardless, now we have some closure on all those disparate singles releases.

Liminal Animals' cover art reminds me a lot stylistically of the one for Matt Elliott's Drinking Songs, and that somber and lethargic interpretation continues to inform the lens through which I view Liminal Animals even at its most tongue-in-cheek. Having had plenty of opportunities to grow accustomed to the songs of the album through their release schedule, I did find myself less excited about them due, in part, to this being the third Ulver to have "synthpop" as its main genre tag, and also because few of the songs felt as exciting as the ones that remained highlights from The Assassination Of Julius Caesar and Flowers Of Evil. More so, "Hollywood Babylon" is way too tongue-in-cheek for its own good, and despite repeated listening I can't find myself figuring out its appeal in a way that doesn't make it the most unappealing of Ulver's tracks.

Liminal Animals is, however, not a retreat of the other two synthpop albums, and its lack of obvious highlights does make more sense in that aforementioned somber and lethargic lens. Not as romantic as The Assassination Of Julius Caesar nor as flamboyant as Flowers Of Evil, a lot of Liminal Animals feels more mellow and understated. There are tracks that would've fit on the other two of the records (like "A City IN The Sky"), but also tracks that take a more ambient approach (like the two "Nocturne" tracks), or a kind of art pop that feels more in line with the band's works from before their overtly synthpop times (like "Locusts"), or the dark jazz touches given by guest Nils Petter Molvær on "Forgive Us". Even for an album where the synth is the main instrument, I find certain synth melodies, like the ones in "Ghost Entry" and "The Red Light" that feel so alien for Ulver.

In the end, I am quite conflicted. The highs aren't as high. The lows are lower. But on average, Liminal Animals did find a skin of its own to inhibit even while sporting the same main genre tag. Three decades of being chameleonic don't instantly wear off, but I would forgive Ulver, as per their plead, if this is the lane in which they stick.