Album Review: Fever Ray, Radical Romantics

Returning after a six-year hiatus, Sweden’s Karin Dreijer, aka Fever Ray, has crafted a typically imaginative offering in Radical Romantics. A perfect fit for small hours clubbing, the record has an hallucinatory feel – the sort that should be appreciated by Irish Erasmus students attending their first all-night rave.

Filled with seismic beats, hypnotic synths and captivating vocals, Radical Romantics takes many intriguing twists and turns. A coterie of up-tempo tunes, like ‘Even It Out’ and ‘New Utensils’, are offset by more chilled efforts such as ‘Carbon Dioxide’ and ‘North’. Famed as the sometime vocalist of cult electro duo The Knife, Dreijer’s voice is manipulated to winning effect on standouts ‘What They Call Us’ and ‘Kandy’.

The closing ‘Bottom Of The Ocean’, meanwhile, is a wonderful exercise in atmospheric ambience. Kooky and beautifully original, I crave hearing Radical Romantics on a drunken walk home from a wild European house party.

7/10

Out now