Unlike many -- OK, most -- ambient electronica albums since the heyday of
the Orb,
Eigenart's
Cityhopper doesn't dissolve into nothingness once the listener starts paying attention to the music. Songs like "Wireless" and "It Could Be Anything" are built on tiny snatches of melody, with vocal fragments and the barest wisps of melodic phrases that gain strength through repetition and subtle changes. Echoing whispers and spacy vintage synth lines reverberate through these songs, but in a just-so fashion far enough removed from
Eno-style wallpaper music that the record rarely recedes into the background. However,
Cityhopper is also mellow enough that the final track, a new remix of
Eigenart's previous single, "LFO," startles the listener out of the album's pleasant daydreams with its upfront 4/4 rhythm.