Fever ray- Album

Elizabeth Marchetti
24.11.09

Labels are useless, as Karin Dreijer Andersson would know. The sister of Olof and half of the Swedish duo sensation The Knife, went and recorded her own album, albeit a very unique sounding one. Pop, ambient, or world, who cares? The elements are there and woven together beautifully.
Seemingly overwhelmed by the band´s international success, Karin has sought refuge in her private shell and composed new cathartic material that has seen the light under the pseudonym "Fever Ray" .
Unlike The Knife´s dance oriented anthems, Fever ray sounds more primordial in its composition and proves to be a daring piece of work. Karin shows natural ability in transmitting a high range of emotions with seemingly little effort.
The ten tracks go down smooth. Karin´s elfin, eclectic voice opens with the hypnotic "If I had a heart" that envelopes you from the first chord and overlaps deep and inhuman variations: masqueraded by heavy synthesizers and deep drum beats, it loses itself and appears as a feeling, or rather, a presence.
Haunting and distant she grows closer, louder, but like a silent shout all songs escalate without really taking off and they make for mesmerizing melodies: there is a hint of oriental influences in the use of cymbals and hypnotic cadence of percussions, that echo the experimental eighties´ pop.
The album is real gem, evocative of northern lights and geysers. It is subtly enamoring and reveals Karen´s hot and cold appeal with a contradictive soothing sound, but dark at the same time. As a newly mum, the artist indulges and sulks in her child-like daydreams while placing them in the bare composition, where a few guitar chords and baselines are dropped in delicately. "Keep the streets empty", "Concrete walls" and "When I grow old" stand out.
The lyrics reveal shatters of Karen´s subconscious: like fairy tales, they are both innocence and the loss of it, leaving you in either deep melancholy or understated happiness. 
In a nutshell, Fever Ray is an outstanding album that reveals and unwraps itself slowly, caressing you.
ENDS
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