The Canadian electro producer returns with Suddenly, his 7th opus. More ambitious, out of his comfort zone, Caribou will shake up some of the habits of those who remember with joy Our Love or Swim, his two previous albums.
We get out of the routine
We had no doubt that Caribou still likes to make music, but what we feared in Swim, his previous opus released in 2015, is that his music will go on autopilot. When you start reading Suddenly, you get completely out of this routine. The break is in the hip hop samples, newcomers in his musical identity forged over 20 years. He sails quite far, this Caribou. He titillates FourTet, James Blake, Depth Affect. Dan Snaith, his real name, wants to follow them all and stand out in this whole indie electro scene. Aside from the dispensable and dancy Never Come Back, Suddenly looks like a Pandora's box, emerging from bits of past sounds capable of confusing.
Small soul touches
Caribou's talent lies in this blend of vintage grape bunches to make a new grape variety. His old hit Sun can be used to illustrate the sound of the 2010s. The 2020 vintage is less easily grasped, we immerse ourselves in it little by little. Slowly with the ballad You and I, then with the following ones. Desserts made of samples, out of tune pianos and hip-hop (Sunny's Time). Small soul touches in Home, which summons the group Avalanches who could interpret it quite as a duo. Both handle, indeed, the art of sampling brilliantly. His voice is laid bare in the last song Cloud Song, for a psyche ode of the 60s. For Caribou, it is undoubtedly this decade that influences all the others.
Confusing but mesmerizing, this is how we could describe this latest opus of Caribou. But you have to listen to it to really understand it. So we leave you with You and I.
You and I by Caribou:
