Dusk Log features four songs that are in keeping with the more organic sound of
Múm's previous full-length,
Summer Make Good. Tracks such as "Kostrzyn" rely even more heavily on acoustic instrumentation -- in this case, rousing horns and strings -- despite the skittering beats and bloopy synths around their peripheries. This song and "This Nothing in the Faraway" are decidedly more tossed-off than anything on the sometimes overdone
Summer Make Good, but that's part of their charm, and their cheerier sound makes the EP a more instantly engaging listen than the album was.
Dusk Log's immediacy also, arguably, makes a better setting for "Will the Summer Make Good for All of Our Sins?"'s fairytale-like mix of whimsical beauty and potentially dangerous strangeness. The EP comes to a close with "Boots of Fog," one of the most abstract tracks
Múm has done in a while: scratchy noises and snippets of melodies drift in and out, and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir's vocals pile on top of each other, resulting in fractured, dreamlike folk. The song, like the rest of
Dusk Log, is a compact reminder of how good
Múm is at hazy, sketchy outlines and intricate sonic doodles. ~ Heather Phares