It is possible you have not heard of Fever Ray - I hadn't until today, when I read a review in The Guardian. Since then I have "spotifyed" the album, and am currently entranced. As the aforementioned review mentions, this is a work of rare and complex beauty - with echoes of the more experimental textures of the 80s.
I am particularly struck by the aspects that sound like Duet Emmo, or indeed, many artists from Mute. It seems to combine aurally the electronic and the environmental in a way, that, too, later Talk Talk explored. Bjork, of course, seems the most direct seam mined.
At times, there are also more contemporary nods to TV On The Radio. In the process - and importantly from an eco-feminist perspective - it goes further, perhaps, especially in writing and singing about motherhood, childhood, and other "less rock" subjects - extending the politics of pop form. Fever Ray, the album, feels like a major musical event of the moment. It certainly sounds a lot more like a work dealing with the world now - humanely but ultra-imaginatively - than most recent releases, proving that the lyrical and the innovative can fuse helpfully.
I am particularly struck by the aspects that sound like Duet Emmo, or indeed, many artists from Mute. It seems to combine aurally the electronic and the environmental in a way, that, too, later Talk Talk explored. Bjork, of course, seems the most direct seam mined.
At times, there are also more contemporary nods to TV On The Radio. In the process - and importantly from an eco-feminist perspective - it goes further, perhaps, especially in writing and singing about motherhood, childhood, and other "less rock" subjects - extending the politics of pop form. Fever Ray, the album, feels like a major musical event of the moment. It certainly sounds a lot more like a work dealing with the world now - humanely but ultra-imaginatively - than most recent releases, proving that the lyrical and the innovative can fuse helpfully.
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