FEVER RAY: from darkness to a vibrant consciousness of the gender reality
Eleven years have passed since the first release of “Fever Ray” by “Fever Ray”, the first homonym album by Karin Dreijer Andersson, the other half of the swedish electro duo with her brother Olof, The Knife, whom worked on their last record together,”Shaking the Habitual”, in 2013.
Here you have the official video of one of the Shaking the Habitual’s tracks, A Tooth For An Eye
But now let’s talk about Fever Ray’s legacy of the first masterpiece they have made: the record is a sort of a dark diary, where every song has its own story, or perhaps you can read it as a continuous chain of short novels, where hope seems to be the main feeling through the hidden journey.
Maybe most of you know “If I had a heart” because is the opening song in the TV series “Vikings”, and it’s also the opening song of the album, but I suggest you to go further with the listening, ‘cause every track gives you twin-vibrations inside the mosaic of the album.
“When I grow up” follows the tracklist, and here the sound takes a different shade: it becomes less dark, more tribal-ish and the dance background has a lot to say about Karin’s previous journey with The Knife.
Now, I’m not gonna describe every single song, you must leave the flux of it do its own work, and trust me, it’s a unique trip.
FLASHBACK
Let’s make a jump into an old record made by the brothers duo: “Silent Shout”, released in 2006, where you can find some relatable sounds between “Fever Ray” and the third studio record made by TK.
In 2017 a new product of love came by Karin: PLUNGE.
A frame took from the official video of “To The Moon And Back”
What to say about Plunge?
Forget the vibes you got with the first record and be prepared to be covered in a rainbow of self-love, eccentricity, and electro-disco sounds that, once again, somehow remind of the style of “The Knife”, “Deep Cuts” and “Shaking the Habitual”, three of the four studio albums made with her sibling and long-time musical mirror Olof.
Plunge is made by an entirely girlish ensemble, but what comes out of this magical work is a light that expresses the urgency of being more than one thing, more than a single identity, such as the human condition allows us to be and so do.
Karin and her girls sing, wear fake muscle costumes and define the importance of being free together; trough a series of masks and symbols that incorporate a woman’s world, but made with a peculiar aestethic, bizarre I must say, that is difficult to forget.
Let the Fever Ray journey go on, but you mustn’t hurry too much about it.
