It's Alright Between Us as It Is

The album delivers the type of lush, cheerful disco Lindstrøm has always been known for, but there's a much darker undercurrent present here, and it feels like one of his most emotionally complex works yet.

All pleasant enough, but Lindstrøm then levels up in the final third, with Drift, a hail of petals that recalls Orbital’s Belfast, and the jazz piano that poignantly destabilises closing tracks Bungl (Like a Ghost) and Under Trees.

[It's Alright Between Us as It Is] finds the Stavanger native matching more vocals to his grandiose productions. [Nov 2017, p.99]

Things get really interesting once the early euphoria fades, with Jenny Hval collaboration Bungl (Like A Ghost) stirring eldritch poetry and fractured jazz into an enthralling mix. [Nov 2017, p.111]

It's All Right... functions almost like a best of. [Nov 2017, p.32]

This new album works hard to add several new jams to his inimitable canon.

There’s a balance to be struck between playing it safe and playing it smart, and Lindstrøm leans more towards the latter. If he occasionally veers the wrong way, he recovers handsomely.

It’s Alright Between Us As It Is is an album of variation. ‘But Isn’t It’ and ‘Shinin’ are weak, but this is a miscalculation in production and uninspired lyric writing, as opposed to anything which puts any lasting worry in our mind about Lindstrøm’s abilities. The work is not his most creative, he’s not redrawing any of the lines of genre which he himself first traced with previous works.

Lindstrøm is better able to keep everything the right side of good taste, for better or worse. This continuous set of eight tracks gets into its spooky stride towards the end. ... A darker second hour might have been even better. [Nov 2017, p.59]

Overall, It's Alright Between Us As It Is is yet another solid entry into Lindstrøm's discography. It doesn't re-invent the wheel in terms of genre or what we expect of the Norwegian producer, but it just keeps things ticking along with exciting and unexpected flourishes at every turn.

While the vocal credits might have promised a more straightforward pop route this time around, It’s Alright Between Us… ends up being one of Lindstrøm’s most disjointed and ambiguous projects.

There is enough movement and mood changes on the album to stop it from becoming repetitive, although the majority of the material is based on not too complicated repetition.

Ultimately, neither the album's ample, artful ambience nor its pasted-on continuous sequencing can help it transcend the ho-hum resignation of its title. [No. 149, p.59]

The point of Alright is not to churn out hit singles but to create an experience for its listeners, to create a concept album. Lindstrøm has successfully done so!

This latest from Lindstrøm weighs to heavy on the pedestrian side. Sure, the whole package is professionally crafted and confidently gets you drifting away from your day-to-day woes, but what we really need is for Chewie to punch it into hyperspace.

Perhaps the wildly-inventive producer isn’t inspired to break the mould, or to look for a new direction, but he is a producer sure to contrast this low with a high next time. It’s alright as it is, this record, but no more than that.

Lindstrøm’s output can include 10-minute workouts of an avant-garde Boredoms track or the sort of polite female vocals people expect to hear on unthreatening dance tunes--Grace Hall’s pleasantries on Shinin’ fit that bill on his fourth solo album while the infinitely more interesting Jenny Hval crops up on a superior Bungl (Like a Ghost).

It's frankly still a pleasure to hear Lindstrøm masterfully keep everything in check, but there's a distinct lack of the full-throttle joyousness that he's capable of. If it was his intentional choice to temper that instinct, it was sadly misjudged.

The album favors polished professionalism and sharp arrangements over risk-taking, so while there aren’t any duds, there aren’t any of the special moments that got Lindstrøm to this point in the first place.