Pianist Espen Eriksen’s debut album with his trio stands out but not in a good way. The insipid compositions are more at home in the background of an expensive restaurant or bar rather than on my stereo. Monotonous and emotionally detached, this collection of instrumental jazz fades into the background far too easily. The term "audio wallpaper" gets thrown about far too freely but You Had Me At Goodbye certainly deserves this classification.
 
Rune Grammofon have always been at the forefront of Norwegian jazz; bands like Shining, Supersilent and Elephant9 all pushing the boundaries and expectations of jazz further and further afield. Therefore, hearing the piano bar style jazz of the Espen Eriksen Trio was a shock to me. Unlike the shock of the new that accompanied my first time hearing Supersilent, this is a shock of the banal. The main problem with You Had Me At Goodbye is not that the music is not pushing any boundaries but that it fails to connect with me on any level.
Credit where it is due, the trio all play perfectly well. The clinical execution of their music is textbook technical proficiency but ultimately sterile. From the opening notes of "Anthem," I feared that there had been a pressing error and some muzak had been mistakenly labeled as the latest Rune Grammofon release. However, the hotel lobby piano melodies that Eriksen employs are meant to be there. The accompanying drums and bass are equally pretty but shallow, the music ending up beige in comparison to the rich hues of traditional and contemporary jazz. "In the Woods" brings to mind the works of Ludovico Einaudi but feels bland in comparison.
There are some moments where the trio do get some life into them; "Masaka Tsara" sees them let loose a little but they never go anywhere thrilling. "On the Jar" has a nice beat to it and it comes the closest out of all the pieces here to being warm and inviting. Eriksen’s piano motifs are lifted on some very nice bass playing, all the while Andreas Bye creates a gentle but engaging patter on the drums. However, the piece does slip into cliché too often and I wonder if "On the Jar" would stand out as one of the better pieces on a stronger album.
I think it says it all when my mother, whose usual tastes run to Michael Bublé and his ilk, commented at how much she liked this album. You Had Me At Goodbye is inoffensive and unexciting. In a restaurant, I would barely notice its presence as it formed part of the background noise. Sitting here and giving it all my attention, I cannot help but feel that this album has arrived through the wrong letterbox.
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