Gusgus – Mobile Home

On vinyl, this sounds absolutely amazing with huge expansive bass and layers and layers of synths adding so much depth. Imo every track is superb. the vinyl pressing is excellent. you need to listen to this on a big rig.

Good sound, but compared to their other amazing stuff, a bit light on compositions. 3 songs on side 1 are pretty good, but to me the rest is fairly bland filler.

I love the sound of this one...can't comment on the mixing or planar sound or whatever, but the songs are really catchy and fun. I absolutely LOVE Margrét's vocals along with Daniel's. This is not their best album, but I guess I don't try to compare them all or expect to be blown away each time, I just enjoy them for what they are. I was also a big fan of Lies Are More Flexible...it's like they finally found their footing as a duo. I hope they work with Margrét again.

I love this album so much ! especially the flac version available on Bandcamp adding extra tracks like Chernobyl and Silence rehearsal dub ! this album is the Lias are more flexible twin , because they come form the same workflow ! The sound is amazing and for me they have delivered for the fans a great album ! Ok official version with only 9 tracks is too short , but with adding of Chernobyl and Silence the prospective change ! hard pick up the best track ! my only regret is Silence my preferred one being drastically cut to the end ! I would have have a longer version alas

Unfortunatly Gusgus lost it's cool and experimental attitude from older days and stuck into boring electro-pop.

D-i-s-a-p-p-o-i-n-t-e-d :/ but not with the music
3.6 but giving 3 stars to lower the overall score

First of all... As a referred to "couple of old guys" Biggi and Daniel still make kick-ass music (can only praise Margrét's contribution, too!) and I'm glad they keep the name and trademark sound alive. Whatever their reasons were, I'm one of the many fans who accepted Stephan, Urőur, Högni or Maggi, etc. will never return, but still secretly hope.

Production
I didn't set my expectations high since we will obviously never see another Arabian Horse, and that's fine (yet Biggi claimed it will be on its level). Obviously, since the very essence of Gus Gus' was a mix of collaborations and being a band, a palette of insights and ideas from many angles, each inspiring one another. Although it's purposefully more creative and meaningful, didn't think it would be less inspired at the same time than Lies. As predicted the whole album feels just as underpolished as you can expect from a collective now limited to a duo with little outside help (aside from former member Siggi's and Margrét's insights). Don't get me wrong, they did an amazing job! It's still full of ion, emotions and message, plenty of timbral layers. But like with Lies, it's just about on the shy side of thin, more akin to unfinished or almost-finished tracks. Ironically some of their live performances felt more complete. It does -not- sound like something you work on for at least 3 years. Not talking about intentional minimalism where applicable, that's different. Obvious is obvious; regardless if a material is say 80% strong, doing the -many- -right- minor fixes can decide a crucial 20%.

Sound
The biggest issue which makes it a deal-breaker: What the hell is up with the mixing???? It's not only 'out of place' but full of notch filtering. It's as if it was handed to someone's cousin who recently got into audio. Each track has its own homemade-like inconsistency where each element vies for attention and ends up discomforting your ears. At first I thought I left on a calibration profile for my other satellite pair. Especially Higher... while strongest as a track, It's unbearably tinny, harsh and brittle. If I'd use an accurate pun, I'd say sounds like a Mobile pHone. (For the culprit: crest is squished to front-end, reducing overall 3d depth to much more planar, strongest at the worst possible points at 4-5 kHz, everything generally covered under a sibilant high-harmonic dominance. None of the usual goosebumps and space here.) Why couldn't they leave them in as they appear on YouTube / digital singles? I found myself forcing my focus on the music. It was jarring. Really hoping they'll fix it.

Length
The publicity (interviews in the preceeding months) made me think the album will actually contain somewhere between 15 and 25 tracks. Which would've made sense, especially for the title. Okay, so a horde of demos they've still had from years back didn't fit. For example Breaking Down. Fine. But then again the runtime is a mere 37 minutes of originals (not counting in the vacatedly outside-commissioned themed Chernobyl - for which I can understand why the comments section was turned off on their channel and thank goodness it was left out from the physical release). Literally any edits of live versions would've been more satisfying; simultaneously releasing two versions; one in a format of extended tracks similar to that of 24/7 and another with edits. You may argue that's not the 'point' behind this release. But neither are 9 tracks averaging at 4-ish mins very 'nomadic' (thinking of a doped up variant of the booklet of Attention where each track was featured as if they were Icelandic locations).

Consolence
I'm not really bothering with 'reviews' in general. So since I'm posting one related to them, I'm going to say they are one of my non-stop most listened to acts (or anything with vocals really) since many years. On par with Sasha, BT and Sasu Ripatti. I enjoy their catalogue a lot lot lot more than for example Depeche Mode's (this alone should compliment Biggi's career as I understand they are one of his idols.... so... at least in my eyes he managed to leave a lasting legacy) and going to rate all of their albums below. (Not an absolute 1-10 ranking, but how good each is within their own niche.)

9.2 - Arabian Horse
8.9 - Gus Gus
8.7 - Polyesterday
8.4 - This Is Normal
8.3 - Gus Gus vs T-World
7.8 - Mexico
7.4 - Attention
7.4 - Lies Are More Flexible
7.2 - Mobile Home
6.9 - Forever (69, nice)
5.6 - 24/7