Fever Ray - Fever Ray

Fever Ray
Fever Ray
(03.2008, Mute U.S.)
RIYL: The Knife, walking on the moon or under the ocean

Thistle has been on my case for quite some time to review this album. It was released almost a month ago and my procrastination makes it pretty unnecessary to even review it at this point. Who out there, that reads music blogs, doesn't already know that this thing exists and is rocking the house down? For all of those said human beings you can now tune out and stop reading this paragraph. For any other human beings unaware of this powerful monstrosity smiting the masses, go educate yourself by picking yourself up a copy. Fever Ray is one half of The Knife - the Karin Dreijer Andersson half. She has taken The Knife sound, chilled it out a bit, gave it some breathing room and infused a little less sterile wind into it's sails. Fever Ray is being described in most reviews as "addictive," and I am gong to have to repeat the sentiment. Fever Ray is as much musical heroin as Silent Shout was/is. It's slightly more lonely this time with a little bit more ambient trance. Even if you don't typically like electronic music it may still be appealing to you, or at least you can be entertained by the high production freaky music videos she has made for it. We are all happy Karin has decided against retiring after Silent Shout in order to give us Fever Ray and are excited to see if the other half of The Knife, her brother, Oolf, can show her up later this fall with his first solo effort. Until then, Fever Ray is sure to be my electronic staple for the year 2009.

-Lil' Sass