Karin Dreijer Andersson
The debut album by Karin Dreijer Andersson – playing under the name Fever Ray – has a particularly unhinged, woozy sound to it – a fact that should surprise no one who is familiar with Andersson’s work as a member of The Knife. Both outfits lean their electronic-based sounds towards elusive, yet enrapturing landscapes of pinging, warbled beats and chilly synth rumblings.
Fever Ray sounds possibly more unbalanced – a testament to the fact that many of the songs were created in the sleepless hours following the birth of Andersson’s second child. It has a suitably insomniac feel to it, capturing the wild thoughts and heady buzz of too few hours’ rest.
It’s there in the music – slippery odes to the darker pop of ’80s icons like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush cooked up in collaboration with Christoffer Berg and the duo Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid – and it’s all over the lyrics, which make even the most matter-of-fact commentary (”When I grow up/I wanna be a forester/run through the moss in high heels”) sound positively manic. It doesn’t help matters that on several songs Andersson pitches and warps her voice into a lower, more demonic range.
Still, for the product of an unhinged mind, the album manages to be an engrossing experience, perfect for your own late night activities, parental or otherwise.
Fever Ray Video – When I Grow Up
[...] next and how it might affect the atmosphere or my mood. [As I write this I am listening to the Fever Ray album, the intensity and mood of which seems ominously perfect for writing this [...]
July 18th, 2009 at 2:39 pm