Sounds like a Knife reunion!
5
By DMILMAN
I'm *really not* into their new look, I think we can all agree the album art, and visuals, are doing this record no favors. But it's a searing, haunted, ethereal masterpiece that worms its way into your subconscious. In a way, it sounds like Kate Bush filtered through the dream theatrics of a Berlin funhouse at 3 AM as all the mirrors are shattering around you. I've liked Fever Ray's past two records just fine, this breaks new ground.
I can tell you why.
Karin and Olof Dreijer reunite for the first part of the album, and it really does sound like a full-fledged Knife renion - this sounds like The Knife circa 2006 before everyone started to copy their spooky breakbeating sound - no holds barred Haunted House. I didn't like where The Knife ultimately ended up ten years ago, when Shaking The Habitual disappointed me. Overlong, too clangy, abrasive, and ultimately inaccessible, they had the ability to actually write a radio-friendly pop hit with "Heartbeats" and were determined to move as far away from that as possible.
But on Radical Romantics, blissfully queer, strangely dancebale, and fabulously unhinged, which touches on tricky subjects such as intimacy and bullying, there are melodies slithering their way through these tracks like silvered mercury. Trent Reznor even contributes, and the overall production gives the album a metallic sheen that's hard to stop thinking about. It's the kind of record where you expect everyone around you to have a boa constrictor around their shoulders, hiding in corners lit by deep blue lights with cement walls.
Anyway, I can't stop listening.
