Miike Snow - Miike Snow (Album Review)

This album has crawled into my ear and started nibbling at my brain, I know what it's doing but I can't do anything to stop it. Now that it's been happening for the last couple of weeks, i'm not sure i'd want to either. I was extremely wary of this band, loving 'Animal' when it was first released several months ago but it's since come to light that two out of three of Miike Snow's cast are the hit factory Bloodshy & Avant. This pair are responsible for the backing tracks to a whole host of chart topping pop stars including Britney Spears and her biggest single 'Toxic'. I'm not disputing that this is a hit, it is and I quite like it but it doesn't have the substance that I normally appreciate in a song. 'Toxic' doesn't exude the physical and emotional struggle it's taken for the artist to extract the words and notes from their head and commit to record. It's pretty obvious that Britney Spears has struggled through at least as much physical and emotional anguish as anyone else but it's not evident in the single because it's too polished, it's an instant hit of sensation but it's ultimately unsatisfying. Like an audio version of MSG, it makes everything taste so much better in the short term but is ultimately unsatisfying. This high quality veneer is present on Miike Snow's debut as well but it's tempered with wavering vocals (courtesy of singer Andrew Wyatt), natural instrumentation and live drums.

Without wanting to further confuse genres or create a new one, it's not possible to describe this album without the words folk and dance appearing in the same sentence. The instruments used are mostly piano and guitar fulfilling the folk side of things but the production is of a dance mentality. The instruments are sampled and then chopped up to create the melodies, building white noise swoops lead up to the quieter moments and the vocals are looped, echoed and tinkered with just like they are in house music. It's how this trio have managed to keep their riffs as catchy as H1N1 without losing the sense of involvement which is noticeably lacking in successful (but disposable) chart music. Opener and lead single 'Animal' is a good example. Chopped, off beat guitars echo into time with shuffling drums underneath the fluttering vocal accompanied by a tinkling piano. It's a sedate pop masterpiece and almost a sensory overload so second track 'Burial' provides some sobriety in the form of a piano and glockenspiel ballad and Andrew simpering "don't forget to cry at your own burial". 'Silvia' is another sombre song texturised with lush synths to create an otherworldly sadness. The album slowly builds its way back up to 'A Horse Is Not A Home' which is propelled by a 4/4 kick drum throughout. 'Cult Logic' is inevitably going to gain comparisons to Passion Pit if not for its wonky-pop synths then certainly for Andrew's adopted falsetto. Second to last track 'Faker' pairs another two unlikely styles, Legend Of Zelda meets The Beatles but it works. Final song 'Billy Holliday' rounds the album out in a similarly cheery note to that which it began in. Miike Snow's debut is either pop dressed as folk or folk dressed as pop, either way it's very pleasing to the ear and not too disposable.

Miike Snow - A Horse Is Not A Home on Spotify