Fever Ray

Fever Ray | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: January 13, 2009
• Release Date: January 13, 2009
• Label: Mute US Corporation
• Copyright: (C) 2009 Rabid Records
• Total Length: 48:02
• Genres:
  • Dance & DJ
• ASIN: B001OBOZ6O
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,293 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Of Spider Webs, Cucumber Slices and other Dishwasher Topics March 24, 2009

By WW85

Format:Audio CD

I don't think of myself as someone who gravitates towards electronic music. Maybe Fever Ray aroused some part of my brain that has been inactive since the 80's. Maybe I listened to too much beard rock last year and needed an intervention. Whatever it is, this album is ADDICTIVE.

It may or may not appeal to fans of The Knife. It might be too chill for them, but that might be fine for the rest of us. For those that don't know, Fever Ray is Karin Dreijer Andersson's solo project away from The Knife, the band she created with her brother. Their last album was a big hit in some circles. She famously talked about retiring after it came out.

This album is here to show she didn't, and in a pretty spectacular way. From her web site-

--Thus `I'm Not Done', one of Fever Ray's more upbeat moments, only reveals its true meaning in its title, a gesture of defiance against Karin's own thoughts of retirement. "That was the last song I wrote and in contrast to many tracks that are more about anxiety and depression, that one is very full of life," she says. "Sometimes, when you're as old as I am now, you think you're going to quit, and people around you think you're going to quit. But then you have days when you realise how good music can be, there's so much left to explore and so much left to do. That's why I sometimes feel I'll never quit."--

But `I'm Not Done', -though one of the finest- is not the last song on the album. Two that were probably written out of the anxiety and depression she describes follow it, and they bring the album to a breathtaking close.

Music videos of the albums first two songs can be easily found online. They are works of art unto themselves.... As good as they are, and as good as the songs themselves are, they just scratch the surface of the depth and enjoyment that listening to the entire album brings. Along with albums like Fleet Foxes eponymous debut last year, and Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest coming in May, Fever Ray seems to be in on what might just be the beginning of a trend; The return of the essential complete album. The album that's too good to just download a song or two, but one where you want to own the whole thing. One you want to hold in your hands and read the liner notes while it's playing on your stereo. Read more ›

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange, dark, catchy, beautiful, etc. February 4, 2009

By Bryan Moore

Format:MP3 Music

It could be that I'll read this review a year from now and say, "Wow, I really liked that record back then, but in hindsight it's nothing all that special, certainly not worthy of five stars." But I doubt it. This really does strike me as a special record. I've been listening to it repeatedly for many days; in fact, I can listen to little else. I like The Knife's Silent Shout a lot, but I think I like this one, Karin's solo project, even better. What's strange is, I can't say I even "like" her voice. I'm not sure I'm supposed to like it, the way I may like Mary Blige's voice, or Britt Daniel's. If Karin's voice were "pretty" or "strong" or whatever, I don't know if it would be as effective. As it is, its cold roughness is the perfect conveyer of these starkly beautiful--and catchy--songs. (In a just world, "Seven" would be a monster international hit.) And they are songs: I think any number of talented singer-guitarists could play some or all them solo and make them work just fine. But much of this is dance music, and the beats, so inventive, are half the fun. The synthesizer sound is another big part of the fun, though I hear an electric guitar here and there, maybe some acoustic percussion. (A real bass in some spots? Hard to know.) This is a little less electronic than The Knife, but not much.

Start with a hooky New Order--or perhaps more accurately Kraftwerk--synthesized riff, add nuanced but minimalistic ornaments, throw in a good bit of Bjorkian vocals (and, of course, digitally-altered Knifean ones--does Olaf appear here and there? it's hard to tell), mix in some dark, N. Europe starkness and Bergmanesque, existentialist gloom, a little dash of free-floating expressionism in the lyrics, and you get--can I spell this?--Karin Dreijer Andersson's Fever Ray.... This is not everyone's cup of tea, to be sure. My ma wouldn't like it. But most pop music lovers--rather alt rock lovers (but why conform to THE MAN'S narrow categories?)--if they are patient, will like this music immensely. Fever Ray will doubtless be huge in Europe, if they aren't already, but they could--defintitely SHOULD--be huge in the U.S. as well. This is great stuff, despite my anticipated future jadedness, and if you are at all curious, and for sure if you are anything of a fan of The Knife (or Bjork or Kraftwerk or New Order or Aphex Twin or etc.), I cannot recommend this more strongly. Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Black witchery sex magik January 7, 2010

By David Chris Dalton

Format:Audio CD

This shall turn out to be the great "Missed Record of 2009" for me. It wasn't until the torrent of year end lists were published in all the magazines, websites and blogs, with this always somewhere in the Top Twenty, that I paid any attention.

Put simply...and many of the reviews here bear this out...there is something almost SUPERNATURAL about this record. It is so impossibly addictive. It gives me such a feeling of Deja vu, yet regarding experiences I know that I've never even ever had...at least not in the waking world. What is up with that?

If Brian Eno made a record with Kate Bush and David Sylvian, using Peter Gabriel's 1980s work as a template, maybe viewed through the eyes of Scandinavian black metal, you might approach the sound and feel of this record.

I am totally obsessed. And I must re-write my Top Albums of 2009 list.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZINGLY ADDICTIVE March 28, 2009

By Robert L. Mcdaniel

Format:Audio CD

At first listen you will be hooked, it will hypnotise you in wanting more.
Listening to the ambient spiral sounds and vocals brings you into a trance and dream state its that good. I bought it today and I am happy I did, its playing in my car, in my house. Just buy it and enjoy the music thats freshly organic and true Karin Dreijer Anderson is an amazing inventive artist and it shows!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great and New World Music Style January 28, 2009

By Roberto de Oliveira

Format:MP3 Music

This is the debut album from Fever Ray (she's Karin Dreijer Andersson). A great and evocative voice, Karin is in tune and here brings your sound (a style alike The Knife), some more natural, a eletronic world music, the lyrics are like stories, simple and mysterious it take you away to a distant world. Wonderful! She creates a mysthical atmosphere (like Bjork), but some songs keeps the connection to the 80's like the excellent Seven, and still great songs with her normal vocal (no synthetic proccess) Keep Street Empty For Me, Now's The Only Time I Know" and When I Grow Up.
A delicious travel around a mysterious world, that just only Karin knows the roads.