Dan Snaith fuses organic with synthetic in gorgeous new LP
Hailing from Dundas, Ontario, multi-instrumentalist Dan Snaith has been quietly releasing a unique and progressive style of electronic music under a number of different stage names, including Daphni, Manitoba, and Caribou. It was with the Caribou’s release of Swim that he began to garner mainstream attention as his blend of lovesick electronic dance music created an inexplicably alluring sound. In listening to his brand new album Our Love, you can see Caribou’s acute awareness of the current state of electronic music; the record sounds as fresh and new as mainstream EDM (Electronic Dance Music) giants like Diplo and Calvin Harris. As Caribou possesses the accessibility and catchiness of the aforementioned artists, there is something inherently organic and original about his music that makes listening to Our Love an extremely satisfying and unique experience.
Our Love opens with “Can’t Do Without You,” an immensely catchy single that utilizes Snaith’s soothing vocals in repeating the song’s title over a lush and hypnotic backdrop. This song acts as the perfect opener, as it wholly represents Caribou’s emotionally intense take on electronic music. Throughout the song, he tweaks the heavily synthesized calls for his loved one, as the beat increasingly builds in sound and intensity, reaching a head as the sonically charged wall of synths, live drum-and-bass collapse, allowing Snaith to further confess his love, whispering “you’re the only thing I think about.” Snaith’s feelings of intense longing is represented in the disjointed, but grooving beat as it crescendos louder and louder. The juxtaposition in Snaith’s sentimental lyrics and the enigmatically infectious synths is a recurring theme throughout Our Love.
Following “Can’t Do Without You,” we are treated to two similarly love-themed songs in “Silver” and “All I Ever Need.” The former has Snaith singing about the regret and anxiety he feels in leaving his love behind, while a smoothly synthesized beat whirls continously mirroring the hypnotic sounds of the “Dire Dire Docks” level in Super Mario 64. “All I Ever Need,” however, sounds like a traditional – by Caribou’s standards – dance song as he quietly repeats the confession “you’re the best I ever had,” previously coined by fellow Canadian Drake. However corny that sounds, it works brilliantly as it builds up to its proverbial beat drop.
After the these three similarly-themed songs open the album, there is a string of five songs that tone down the heavy motif of love and play out in a type of improvisational style similar to jazz. Although the songs are not as poignant as the first three, they work very well in their soothing and mesmerizing character. The organic jam session atmosphere Snaith creates is even more remarkable in the fact that he individually recorded all the instruments. Following this, the album closes with the songs “Back Home” and “Your Love Will Set You Free,” which return to the intense love aesthetic that opened the album. Ultimately, Our Love‘s mixture of love-induced reflection and a vividly unique style of EDM makes for one of the most enjoyable electronic albums of the past few years.
