This album is like a macabre fairytale. Its dark and ominous sounds are haunting and Fever Ray’s (Karin Dreijer Andersson) voice is stripped back, anxious and beautiful. And, because it’s so continually fascinating, it somehow seems a lot more epic than a meagre ten tracks.
Most will have heard of Andersson via The Knife – the Swedish brother/sister duo she makes up half of. This album has tinges of their last album, the incredible
Silent Shout, but it’s lacking the pounding house-esque beats that album contained. It’s a little unfair to compare the two albums though, as Fever Ray is a sleepier style altogether.
‘If I Had a Heart’ is the perfect introduction to the self-titled album. It’s slow, minimal and creepy as fuck. Basically, it should have been on the
Ringu soundtrack. ‘When I Grow Up’ seems immediately lighter, especially with Andersson’s seemingly nursery rhyme lyrics. But the words aren’t innocent enough to be saccharine and they almost describe a kind of creepy dream. ‘Seven’ is probably as whimsical as this album gets, with an almost tropical tinge that makes it seem as if it belonged on
the Labyrinth soundtrack. ‘Triangle Walls’ has a borderline oriental edge, ‘Concrete Walls’ is straight out of a nightmare, and ‘Coconut’ is a freaking psychological thriller.
This is definitely not an album for everybody; the lyrics are often abstract, and the songs are anything but traditional compositions.
Fever Ray is somewhere between early L.A.M.B., The Knife (obviously), Bjork and Kate Bush and somebody else entirely. This album will either make you hallucinate, dream or have a panic attack.
It made us do all of the above. And it was awesome.
More at
myspace.com/feverray.