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It's been four years since Caribou's Swim album and the band defining track 'Odessa': now Dan Snaith is back with Our Love.
Listening to it is akin to musical deja-vu, a sonic experience that is familiar but new. Almost unwittingly, it has become a serious contendor for album of the year, unleashing a summer anthem with 'Can't Do Without You' and pushing past the extremely high standards set by Caribou's past releases.
In interviews Snaith has frequently hammered home the importance of dance music, recently telling The Guardian, "Dance music isn’t just escapism. It's about life". That's a sentiment that rings true when listening to Our Love, it contains a poignance and a depth of composition that elevates it far above the repetitive assumptions often foisted upon the genre.
As a result each track on the album plays with tone, pitch and melody to create different emotions where needed. For example the title track of the album builds layer upon layer of harmony before diving into a filthy bottom end. At the same time, the aforementioned 'Can't Do WIthout You' builds in tone and pitch to a crescendo that takes the melody to both euphoric and sonically challenging levels.
At times it can be a challenging LP, playing with discordance just as much as it does melody, often within the same track. The compositions feel like they are opening up to the user as the tonal shift reveals a melodic drop or pitch shift.
It also plays expertly with the previously established conventions of dance music, utilising processed samples that are extremely familiar. Set across the backdrop of the album they become something else entirely, a form of musical poetry that exposes the deeper levels of music production. The result? A record that makes you move and feel in equal measure.
