The Shape of Too Much

The Dø are one of those acts that keep finding new ways to insist on your attention. Olivia Merilahti’s voice has a quality I’ve never fully been able to place—theatrical but not mannered, precise but with something loose and searching underneath it. Too Insistent, from their 2011 album Both Ways Open Jaws, is exactly what its title suggests: a song that won’t release you from its rhythm, that keeps pressing the same point with the patience of something that knows it will eventually be heard. Dan Levy’s production gives it space to breathe while still keeping the tension coiled. By the end I’m not sure whether I’ve been seduced or exhausted, and I’m not convinced there’s a difference.