This incredibly euphoric fourth album from Caribou is perfect to submerge yourself in after a heavy weekend. Our Love is the seventh album electronic music fans have been blessed with from Canadian Dan Snaith- who has also released three much more dance-orientated albums under the pseudonym of Daphni.
Our Love has a radiant and uplifting smooth sound; far from the the blaring commercial and cluttered sounding EDM that is proving so popular at the moment. On the contrary, some of the tracks on Our Love have an almost celestial quality. As usual Caribou’s gentle vocals are perfectly imperfect, and in this case a crooning reminder that this is a love album. From the outset I am submerged in a warm happy glow thanks to opening track ‘Can’t Do Without You’. With its soft bass line and seductive, echoing vocals we are delivered through a cloud of romantic euphoria and into the next track, ‘Silver’ for a very similar experience.
The recently released album truly is a sheer joy to listen to, but there are no surprises. Many of the other tracks feature the tame hip hop sampling his fans have come to expect. And with ‘Mars’ we get that predictable burst of folk-tronica thanks to the flute component that weaves in and out of the tribal beat before building to a rapturous jungle dance frenzy- for me, a highlight of his set at Bestival 2014.
Dreamy and seductive it may be, but with the uptempo garage-like beats in a track like ‘Julia Brightly’ and the kaleidoscopic album cover you remember that this is an album of dance music. It’s too gentle to be rave music, but there’s that clear slow-burning ability to totally enthral. The album certainly ends on a bold note with ‘Your Love Will Set You Free’; a vast build up of textures including repetitive vocals and a gloomy synth hook taken from earlier track, ‘All I Ever Need’ before ending on its final psychedelic conclusion- a warped electronic cloud.
Title track ‘Our Love’ is an essential listen as it embodies the spirit of the album perfectly with its skilful almost numerical layering of synths, bass and strings. It came as no surprise to hear that Snaith has a phd in Mathematics from Imperial College London; an intelligent, thoughtful sound from an intelligent, thoughtful artist.
Our Love is out now through Merge records.
1 Comment
completely agree! great album.