Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Critic Score
Based on 26 reviews
2009 Ratings: #20 / 923
Year End Rank: #7
User Score
Based on 787 ratings
2009 Rank: #17
Liked by 106 people
January 12, 2009 / Release Date
LP / Format
Rabid Records / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Independent

Even beyond the gothic imagery and glacial electronics, this mesmeric solo project shares much with The Knife’s last album Silent Shout.

100
The Guardian
It's an album that makes the listener work; its melodic richness is slowly revealed, rather than immediate.
100
Clash
With The Knife, Andersson sang like she was sat on a blade’s edge – here, she’s exploring a deep murk, arms outstretched. Most would be terrified, but Karin presses on, full of wicked confidence.
91
A.V. Club

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.

90
PopMatters

Fever Ray makes up for the lack of highs by being an even more all-enveloping experience than the last few Knife records.

90
The Line of Best Fit
Icy but intimate, experimental but quietly infectious, Fever Ray’s debut deserves to garner the same admiration as The Knife, if not more.
81
Pitchfork

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.

80
Q Magazine
If you ever wondered how Bjork would sound if she was caught in a snowdrift, here's your answer.
80
The Observer

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.

80
Mojo
It's captivating stuff, with the gnomic lyrics adding to the implied oppostion between the natural world and the machines used to make the record.
80
Slant Magazine
The album sustains a remarkable degree of structural tension over the course of its brief song cycle.
80
Resident Advisor

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.

80
Under the Radar

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.

80
Consequence of Sound
It’s a flawed release, but the highs undoubtedly redeem the lows. And you’ll get a little scared in the process.
80
NME
Karin Dreijer Andersson sounds demented on this album. Not in a keeping-a-woman-down-a-well kind of way.
80
AllMusic

At times, Fever Ray threatens to become a little too mysterious, but it never sounds less than intriguing.

80
musicOMH
This is an odd gem of a record that should be cherished in a class of its own.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
Fever Ray is a growing, living, breathing document of what electronic music can be.
80
Drowned in Sound

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.

75
XLR8R
Where The Knife’s experimentation with processed vocals only enhanced their eerie aesthetic, Fever Ray shines brightest when Andersson sounds more human.
75
Prefix

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.

72
Coke Machine Glow

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.

70
Alternative Press

Fever Ray is most reminiscent of the Knife self-titled debut--which means it's merely fantastic rather than transcendent.

70
SPIN
Her solo debut slightly tones down the Knife's electro innovation but turns up the creepy affect.
70
Spectrum Culture

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.

60
Uncut
This is an exercise in extravagant claustrophobia, not nostagia.
RakkSmells
90

[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

maryfreegirl
85

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

creative_name
96

2009 albums (10/10)

AND WE ARE DONE WITH THE 2000'S!

best song: Keep the Streets Empty For Me

GARRRR64
90

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.

90

This album is like a fine wine. The more I listen to it, the better this album is.

QDOERTY
68

Eh, it's decent.

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