Fever Ray | ||
| Allmusic Biography : The solo project of the Knifes Karin Dreijer, Fever Ray shares some of that groups icy electronic atmospheres, but takes a slightly more organic-sounding approach. Fever Ray began after the Knife finished their promotional duties for their 2006 album, Silent Shout, and Dreijer had her second child; she worked on demos and song ideas by herself, then collaborated with producer Christoffer Berg, who had mixed the Knifes music. Word of the project surfaced during the summer of 2008 and the first music, an instrumental version of "If I Had a Heart," appeared on Fever Rays MySpace page that fall. Fever Ray was available in January 2009 as a digital download, and the album was physically released that spring. Dreijer returned to the Knife with 2013s Shaking the Habitual and the following years Shaken-Up Versions. In 2017, she issued the Fever Ray single "To the Moon and Back" shortly before the surprise release of the full-length Plunge, which received a physical release in February 2018. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 4 Title: Fever Ray Released: 2009-01-12 Tracks: 12 Duration: 56:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 If I Had a Heart (03:49) 2 When I Grow Up (04:31) 3 Dry and Dusty (03:45) 4 Seven (05:10) 5 Triangle Walks (04:23) 6 Concrete Walls (05:40) 7 Now’s the Only Time I Know (03:59) 8 I’m Not Done (04:19) 9 Keep the Streets Empty for Me (05:39) 10 Coconut (06:48) 11 Stranger Than Kindness (05:00) 12 Here Before (03:13) |
| Fever Ray : Allmusic album Review : At first, its a little difficult to determine where the Knife ends and Fever Ray begins. On paper, its clear -- the Knife is the project of Karin Dreijer and her brother Olof, while Fever Ray is Karin with co-producers Christoffer Berg, Van Rivers, and the Subliminal Kid -- but the differences arent as distinct when listening to Fever Ray the first few times. Initially, the albums dark, frosty atmosphere feels like a continuation of the Knifes brilliant Silent Shout, and the oddly bouncy rhythms on songs like "Triangle Walks" and "Coconut" recall the duos exotic-yet-frozen Nordic/Caribbean fusion. Eventually, though, Fever Ray reveals itself as far darker and more intimate than anything by the Knife. The Knifes spooky impulses are usually tempered by vivid pop instincts that Fever Ray replaces with a consistently eerie mood, particularly on "Concrete Walls," which feels like an even grimmer cousin of Silent Shouts "From Off to On." However, Fever Rays mix of confessional lyrics and chilly, blatantly synthetic and often harsh sounds make this album as successful an electronic singer/songwriter album as Björks Homogenic. These are some of the most alluring and disturbing songs Dreijer has been involved in making: the excellent album opener "If I Had a Heart" explores possibly inhuman need with a churning, almost subliminal synth and murky bass driving Dreijers pitch-shifted vocals (which sound more like a different part of her psyche than a different character in the song); when her untreated voice comes in, keening "will I ever ever reach the floor?" she sounds even more frail and desperate by comparison. The rest of Fever Ray follows suit, offering fragile portraits and sketches that walk the fine line between intimate and insular. Dreijer further expands on the storytelling skills she developed on Silent Shout: the characters in her songs feel even more resonant and unique, especially on "When I Grow Up," which is as fascinatingly fragmented as a childs train of thought, skipping from sentiments like "Im very good with plants" to "Ive never liked that sad look by someone who wants to be loved by you." She also has an eye for unusual details, as on "Seven"s "November smoke/And your toes go numb." It all comes together on the haunting "Nows the Only Time I Know," where the low end of Dreijers voice sounds especially vulnerable and the lyrics fill in just enough to be tantalizing. At times, Fever Ray threatens to become a little too mysterious, but it never sounds less than intriguing, from the layers of claps and castanets that make up the beat on "Im Not Done" to "Keep the Streets Empty for Me"s almost imperceptible guitars. With almost tangible textures and a striking mood of isolation and singularity, Fever Ray is a truly strange but riveting album. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 4 Title: RA.178: Fever Ray Released: 2009-10-26 Tracks: 1 Duration: 1:03:34 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 RA.178 (1:03:34) |
 | Album: 3 of 4 Title: Live in Luleå Released: 2009-11-30 Tracks: 12 Duration: 1:01:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 If I Had a Heart (05:06) 2 Triangle Walks (04:20) 3 Concrete Walls (05:59) 4 Seven (05:35) 5 Im Not Done (04:40) 6 Nows the Only Time I Know (03:54) 7 Keep the Streets Empty for Me (05:43) 8 Dry and Dusty (03:38) 9 Stranger Than Kindness (05:05) 10 When I Grow Up (05:35) 11 Here Before (03:44) 12 Coconut (08:01) |
 | Album: 4 of 4 Title: Plunge Released: 2017-10-27 Tracks: 11 Duration: 46:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Wanna Sip (03:28) 2 Mustn’t Hurry (04:17) 3 A Part of Us (03:30) 4 Falling (05:03) 5 IDK About You (03:40) 6 This Country (03:12) 7 Plunge (05:36) 8 To the Moon and Back (04:37) 9 Red Trails (04:50) 10 An Itch (03:45) 11 Mama’s Hand (04:58) |
| Plunge : Allmusic album Review : "Hey, remember me? Ive been busy working like crazy," Karin Dreijer sings on Plunge, but even though Fever Rays second album arrived eight years after the projects self-titled debut and five years after the Knifes Shaking the Habitual, theres no chance listeners could forget her. With both of those acts, Dreijer pioneered crystalline electronic sounds that became the blueprint for many acts during her absence. However, Plunge reaffirms that shes still more fearless than most of her would-be peers. Even if it wasnt originally a surprise release, the albums title reflects how it feels like a sudden, total immersion in the unexpected. Dreijer got as much as she could out of pure darkness on Fever Ray; this time, she throws more light on her music, and its stranger and brighter-sounding than it has been in years. Often, Plunge recalls the way the Knife filtered tropical melodies through an iceberg on their early albums, whether its the way the synths sound like steel drums and splashing water on the title track, or the way "IDK About You" resembles a futuristic-yet-feral mating ritual thanks to a galloping beat courtesy of Portuguese producer Nidia. Yet Plunge sounds fresher -- sharper -- than the Knifes later releases, even as it touches on similar concepts. Since Silent Shout, Dreijer has eloquently expressed the need for intimacy, and its consequences, by blurring the lines between love songs and horror themes. Its a tradition she upholds on songs like "Falling," which echoes the ice-burnt isolation of Fever Ray, but also on the fierce and tempting "Wanna Sip" and the equally nightmarish and poignant "An Itch," both of which explore the potentially terrifying possibility of connecting with someone else. The fear and hope surrounding letting the right one in peaks on "Red Trails," where Dreijer sings about a vampiric relationship ("blood was our favorite paint/You were my favorite pain") over violin and a ricocheting beat to stunning effect. Elsewhere, she makes the albums defiance overtly political on "This Country," where "Destroy boring" and "Every time we fuck, we win" are key parts of her manifesto, and on "To the Moon and Back," where she makes her bold statements all the more subversive by setting them to deceptively sugary sounds. Dreijer matches these wild moments with a wish to belong that, remarkably, doesnt feel contradictory. The somber patience of "Mustnt Hurry" and "A Part of Us" culminates with "Mamas Hand," which gives the album a surprisingly happy conclusion thanks to "a little thing called love." The journey to dive into commitment that Dreijer takes her listeners on with Plunge boasts more moods and colors than Fever Rays debut, or any single Knife album; ultimately, its some of her most powerful work with yet. | ||