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Oct 15, 2014 Caribou By Billy Hamilton

What was most surprising about Dan Snaith’s 2010 album Swim was that it was brilliant and predictable. Really, the sun-setting grooves and hypnotic rhythms of his finest moment as Caribou to date were always going to happen. After all, this is a man who has spent his career skipping from Kraut-rock to psych to lilting indie like a kid in a playground.

An exploration of post-clubland arrangements, then, felt like a natural step forward. And it sounded like one. Swim‘s series of comedown fusions contained enough teeth for those who’d not quite finished the party. Here was a record that fit the bill for any pie-eyed sucker with a penchant for twitching melody.

Snaith’s fourth venture under the Caribou moniker explores similar trends without ever scaling Swim‘s euphoric heights. Much of this is down to the drenching melancholy that drags down the synthscape of “Silver” and the Jessy Lanza-led haze of the dreary “Second Chance.”

At its best, Our Love oozes with multi-layered complexity. Lead single “Can’t Do Without You” builds into a crescendo of key and off-piste percussion; “All I Ever Need” is made of brooding, nimble beats and Snaith’s inverted falsetto; while album swansong “Your Love Can Set Me Free” invokes a mélange of bulbous house music and light-footed dubstep.

But for all its intriguing flourishes, it’s hard not to think of Our Love as a slightly limp but occasionally brilliant follow-up. And for someone of Snaith’s forward-thinking nature, there’s probably no more damming indictment. A surprise, yes, but not necessarily a good one. (www.caribou.fm)

Author rating: 6/10