join me in anticipating musics by FEVER RAY (aka one half of the knife)

it's a headphone record. sure you can dance to it if you want. but i'd make fun of you.

wtf is this argument even about anymore? i love everything they do but i'll tend to prefer the stuff with overt/bigger beats

it's not an argument. it's a discussion. my main point is that so many people are critiquing fever ray as tuneless/hookless, like silent shout was a big dance party.

i suppose the difference between fever ray and SS is not necessarily the absence of beats and melodies, which were thin on the ground on silent shout, but the arpeggiator. e.g. I feel like forest families totally belongs on this album thematically but not sonically. also, this may be bullshit, but i guess the average BPM is higher on SS. i love both albums with the fire of one thousand suns, but there's definitely a qualitative difference between them. if people don't like both then their opinions are incorrect and what's next voting for nazis?, but i agree with them that SS and this have differences that are not negligible.

i think the bpm thing might be key - SS might not have been "catchy" or "dance party" per se (though at least three of its cuts were pretty ubiquitous in dance sets that year) but the tempo of the catchier tracks gave it an energy, a propulsion, which FR lacks. it's a qn of what FR brings to the table instead, and i'm still in the process of figuring that out.

i agree, plus, those slower tempos don't really waver much on FR

not many metal percussive sounds on FR gives it way less propulsion

it's like, i really love 'from off to on' and 'forest families' in the context of SS, where the catchier tracks provide a great counterpoint to them, but i'm not sure i'd really want a whole album of them, which is what FR feels like so far to me. i don't dislike any of it per se, it's a v impressive work...i'm just not into it.

don't forget na na na

Finally heard this, and it's excellent!

when i grow up on of the rare promo videos that actually makes me like a track more.

lovin that dude from studio's remix of when i grow up :)

oh man, i didn't get into that remix at all. it was like a studio remix distilled down only to the most typical elements with the vocals just kinda plopped on top throughout most of it. i really hate to dislike it, but yeah...

^kind of agree with this

but still happy to hear studio and so I dig it

I never thought I'd say this about a Knife-related release, but this sounds so much better in the sunshine.

I don't think I quite appreciated the first time round how some of the tracks seem to waver between warmth and ice - a bit of a push and pull between sunny Balearic sounds and dark Teutonic synthpop.

When I Grow Up and Coconut in particular have this real 'industrial goth takes time out to go and sit on a beach' feel to them.

I really love the artwork, Max, and I TRULY don't mean to be a dick here; I'm just curious - did they never mention Charles Burns when discussing the artwork? (Seeing as how the "Silent Shout" video was a total "Black Hole" homage, so I figure the Knife are into him)?

Either way, it's really great - and the cover is the reason I'm buying the physical copy instead of picking it up on iTunes!

Yeah, looking forward to a physical release. Somehow I've imagined it being white-on-black silkscreen in a matte black cardboard sleeve, but it probably won't be. . .

You asked for a non-shiny cardboard sleeve? Well, look what I got in the mail from bengans.se today:

http://i41.tinypic.com/tzhqg.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/10o0868.jpg

Enhanced CD:

I:\>dir
Volume in drive I is Fever Ray
Volume Serial Number is 51F4-3665

Directory of I:\

05/01/2009 14:51 103.849.072 If I Had A Heart, High.mp4
05/01/2009 15:15 38.851.518 If I Had A Heart, Low.mp4
2 File(s) 142.700.590 bytes

i wonder why the sunglasses

I got somethin' to say to you and you better listen -
i'm gonna tell ya how to be cool in one easy lesson:

sunglasses after dark

That looks great StanM!

What's with the 'high' and 'low'? Is it the video?

Yes, it's the video in two formats.

I love this album! can't wait for the physical release. this doesn't have the highs of Silent Shout, but it
seems more consistent. dark and moody without being depressing, beautiful melodies, great sound palette...
even the crappy mp3s have amazing depth.

Google translation of an interview in a Belgian paper today. Kiss, Tomahawk, The Knife. :-)

"Oer" cannot be translated, it seems ;)
She also mentioned Kiss in an interview with Groove. (mentioning that a friend of her daughter said "Geil! Your mother looks like she's in Kiss")

You asked for a non-shiny cardboard sleeve? Well, look what I got in the mail from bengans.se today:

Nice!

tempted to get this on vinyl

slightly surreal concert in Göteborg, Sweden, tonight. Karin Dreijer entered the venue in some sort of headgear, looking a bit like a mix of an uprooted tree and a bison head.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MaBelll

I'm actually enjoying this thing more and more. Getting a proper physical copy has made me hear so many more things. Amazing production

I called the record shop today, asked if they were getting it on vinyl, and if they could hold a copy for me :)

Album of the year.

So far.

yeah definitely album of the year. It keeps giving and giving

I want to like this but I'm definitely not feeling it. So yeah, great production, I love Karin's voice and beautiful videos... but nothing else. I think the melodies are mediocre, and the tracks I've heard so far consist of no more than a theme repeated over and over. What am I missing?

...actually the spooky vocal effect is kind of annoying too.

It's going to grow on you.

Also, don't get cardboard cd cases wet, they get deformed and horrible. I may even order it again since this cover was so nice and now it sucks so much :-(

:-(

Yeah it is def. a grower. The whole thing seems monotonous and austere at first but there is so much going on, esp. in the vocals (and I used to hate the spooky thing when the Knife albums came out)

I agree w/ david. I got to the fourth or fifth listen, then realized that while it sounded alright when it was on, I couldn't remember a damn thing of it when it was not. I decided at that point that it probably wasn't worth any more of my time.

This almost sounds like a sister album to Homogenic, albeit less pop and far, far darker. But similarly "homogenic" (lolz) and/or singular, all-encompassing in its mood.

A friend told me that you had to be a former goth to really enjoy this. Maybe she is right

Homogenic isn't completely unmemorable, though.

i've had songs from this going through my head for a month now

One of my favs of the first quarter of 2009. So simple yet so epic. Does anyone have a copy of the Hakan Libdo remix? i think i need that.

The "biography" section of her website is actually pretty interesting and explores the songs in detail:
http://feverray.com/biography/

I hadn't much thought of the motherhood aspect of all of these lyrics but it does make sense. It seems a lot of this album occurs at 4AM, outside in the garden of a country house, trying to be quiet cuz everybody else is sleeping.

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/7631-fever-ray/

I got to the fourth or fifth listen, then realized that while it sounded alright when it was on, I couldn't remember a damn thing of it when it was not. I decided at that point that it probably wasn't worth any more of my time.

I'm interested in this reaction. Sometimes I sort of like when I can't remember music when it's not on, because it can then be a nice surprise when I do put it on.

Gets better with every play - I'm really starting to appreciate the subtly changing colours to the whole thing, especially all those droney noises.