Teitur
Poetry & Aeroplanes (2003)

Review by: Michael Walls
Date: 8/9/03

Teitur Lassen is a poet. He writes poetry put to music. Interesting observations about life, relationships and travel, using clever imagery and catchy phrasing. Oh – and he can sing and play guitar too.

Teitur is from the Faroe Islands, a small remote group of Islands belonging to Denmark, floating somewhere between Iceland and Scotland. Which explains his travel metaphors and “longing and missing you” references. I’m not sure what kind of music they have on the Faroe Islands, but from his music, you can tell his influences are folk-based. He cites James Taylor, Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega as inspirations.

The inside cover of Poetry & Aeroplanes has a picture of Teitur sitting at a table, chin resting on his hand, staring off to nothing, with a cup of coffee in front of him. And that’s what this is – coffee house music. The type of music you’d want and expect while relaxing at a coffee house, the entertainment being a singer-songwriter-poet sitting on a stool with a guitar and filling the air with music. The type of music where you can still talk to your friends or ask the waitress for more sugar without having to shout.

A good portion of Poetry & Aeroplanes is Teitur on acoustic guitar. Some exceptional acoustic guitar and very soothing vocals, which, if that was all there was, it would be enough. But on a few tracks he utilizes some subtle rhythms, beautiful strings and piano – making an already good album, that much better.

You know those softer moments of Jeff Buckley? When the music isn’t filled with production and it’s just Jeff pouring his soul out in a way that makes you want to give him a hug. That’s Teitur’s music. He doesn’t quite have the depth of Buckley’s outpouring lyrics, but he has a similar quality in approach and song structuring. But he’s young. At 25, Teitur has plenty of years of life’s triumphs and heartbreaks ahead of him to write about.