Even beyond the gothic imagery and glacial electronics, this mesmeric solo project shares much with The Knife’s last album Silent Shout.
Karin Dreijer Andersson took a break from her better-known project in order to get some air, but her eponymous debut as Fever Ray is countless times more claustrophobic and creepy than Silent Shout.
Fever Ray makes up for the lack of highs by being an even more all-enveloping experience than the last few Knife records.
Three years after the landmark Silent Shout, the Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson returns as Fever Ray. Fans of the Knife will not be disappointed.
It's not exactly plain sailing, and what may be bewitchingly hypnotic to some will sound a tad repetitive to others, but if you yearn for music that conveys the fascination of watching the world come crashing down around our ears, Fever Ray's sparse melancholy, numb confusion and raw emotion perfectly fits the (three months' overdue) bill.
Much of Fever Ray thins out that album's plumper ends into a bonier brand of minimalism. But that's not to say the record sounds famished; Fever Ray's mid-ends glow pale with plenty of sonic depth and instrumental nuances for headphone lovers.
Fever Ray dips into the uncanny valley from time to time, enough to be terrifying, but Andersson lends a more human touch to the album.
At times, Fever Ray threatens to become a little too mysterious, but it never sounds less than intriguing.
Thematically, and for the quality of songwriting, Fever Ray fully deserves to be considered a follow-up to Silent Shout; nonetheless, it’s also a line-in-the-sand for The Knife-as-pop-entity.
It’s easy to see that the Anderssons don’t view themselves as mere pop performers and even with its chinks, Fever Ray magnifies that discussion.
Perhaps because most people have had the time to absorb and move beyond the exaggerated reactions to its initial impact but also because, like most solo records, Fever Ray is a more refined songwriterly affair, even if the drama and icy synths have hardly been reduced.
Fever Ray is most reminiscent of the Knife self-titled debut--which means it's merely fantastic rather than transcendent.
Luckily, Fever Ray not only builds on the sounds of Silent Shout, that slithering trepidation and seething landscape, but brings something new to the music.
[Genre: Electropop]
It might not have hit me immediately but once I started letting it sink in over time... my god, was it worth checking this out. This is great.
Fever Ray is the solo project of Karin Dreijer from The Knife, an electropop turned experimental industrial pop group that I discovered through Shaking The Habitual, one of my favourite albums from 2013. I was just absolutely taken back by how bizarre, haunting and detailed the album was, and while this doesn't sound anything like ... read more
very cool atmosphere, the singer's voice complements it very interestingly with that raising and lowering of their pitch and most of the songs were compelling, good stuff
2009 albums (10/10)
AND WE ARE DONE WITH THE 2000'S!
best song: Keep the Streets Empty For Me
Fever Ray's debut album is unapologetically weird. Borrowing from acts like Bjork and Kate Bush, Fever Ray also occupies a similar icy soundscape but does so in a way that doesn't come off as too imitative. Fever Ray instead creates their own mystifying world of dark synths and dimly glowing vocals.
1 | If I Had a Heart 3:47 | 96 |
2 | When I Grow Up 4:31 | 93 |
3 | Dry and Dusty 3:45 | 87 |
4 | Seven 5:10 | 89 |
5 | Triangle Walks 4:22 | 92 |
6 | Concrete Walls 5:40 | 88 |
7 | Now's the Only Time I Know 3:59 | 88 |
8 | I'm Not Done 4:19 | 89 |
9 | Keep the Streets Empty For Me 5:39 | 95 |
10 | Coconut 6:48 | 88 |
#2 | / | Resident Advisor |
#5 | / | musicOMH |
#8 | / | The Line of Best Fit |
#9 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#9 | / | NME |
#9 | / | Pitchfork |
#10 | / | Clash |
#12 | / | Treble |
#12 | / | Uncut |
#14 | / | Stereogum |