Caribou
Suddenly
Release Date: Feb 28, 2020
Genre(s): Electronic, Pop/Rock
Record label: Merge
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Album Review: Suddenly by Caribou
Exceptionally Good, Based on 10 Critics
Based on rating 4.5
Having released one of the best house tracks of 2019 - Sizzling, under the Daphni alias - Dan Snaith is back as Caribou for a record of lush sounds, inventive songwriting and his trademark muted but soulful vocals. Sister opens the record with a suite of sounds: first a glowing, neon timbre, then overlapping guitar loops, then warm synth plucks, as the vocal underneath remains unfazed by these transitions ("sister, I promise you I'm changing / you've heard broken promises, I know / if you want to change it you must break it / rip it up and something new will grow"). It's a neat microcosm of Snaith's sound, appearing organic and laidback while being full of sonic nuance.
Based on rating 9/10
Only Dan Snaith (aka Caribou) could take hundreds of draft ideas — give or take 900 — and narrow them down to 12 tracks of Technicolor magic. While the Canadian producer has always exhibited a near-daily affinity to create music (just ask Four Tet), something felt different in the approach to Suddenly, Caribou's most recent material since 2014's critically acclaimed Our Love. Aside from Snaith taking on a greater role as primary vocalist, he delves deeper into the intricacies and ….
Based on rating 8.5/10
From venturing back to Andorra's '60s pop tinge to the genre-bending perfection of Swim, and 2014's, Our Love - an LP that not only managed to further catapult Snaith's name to critical acclaim - he remains ever-focused. His newest, Suddenly, revolves around a familiar ethos, but even as it pans out with quintessential moments under Snaith's thumb, he somehow continues to entice and dazzle us just enough with his particular vision. One of Snaith's strong suits has always been his ability to adapt.
Based on rating 8.2/10
Over the past decade, Caribou has been whittling down his music. Dan Snaith's songs were once a constant swirl of brightly colored baubles, as pleasingly jumbled as the view through a kaleidoscope. With 2010's Swim, the muddle began coming into focus. The melodies were brighter, the beats more direct.
Based on rating 8/10
Dan Snaith has finally settled into a sound that suits him best. The Canadian musician explored many genre-bending concepts during the first decade of his career, taking on a variety of guitar-based tropes under a gauzy, electronic filter. But make no mistake—Snaith has always been a "producer" in the strictest sense. Up to 2010's dance-oriented Swim, every Caribou release cruises in that middle lane between retro-leaning classic rock and proactive ambient music.
Based on rating 8/10
Over a long career arc, electronic producer Dan Snaith took his Caribou project from sunny sample-core to more organic, psyche-tinged creations and beyond. His 2010 album Swim filtered his unique musical perspectives through a fascination with deep house music, and four years later Our Love delivered some of his more intimate and minimal sounds. Sixth studio album Suddenly picks up threads from both of these, pushing the dancefloor-ready style of Swim as well as Snaith's more softly drawn songwriting into colorful and fun new places.
Based on rating 4/5
Rating: NNNN In his 20 years making music under various monikers, electronic musician Dan Snaith has continually established himself as an expert architect of soundscapes that are equally unfamiliar and warm. Suddenly is the first new Caribou album in six years, and it's imbued with splendour and curiosity: an ongoing commitment to ushering us, gently, into his own idiosyncratic sonic world. After all this time, he's still finding new ways to express it.
Based on rating 4/5
After releasing 'Our Love' in 2014, Caribou, aka Dan Snaith has returned with an album concerned with family and the changes we go through as these relationships evolve. Musically, it is the most diverse record of Dan’s to date, seeing him push his own vocals to the forefront as on elliptical opener 'Sister'. The track alludes to evolving family relationships with a stark clarity over graceful synths.
Opinion: Excellent
Suddenly by Caribou Dan Snaith's seventh full length as Caribou floats fragile falsetto confessions over bubbly dance beats, fitting quick jolts of 1970s soul and disco into chilled electronic soundscapes. The slick and the vulnerable balance on a knife edge, whispery poetry doing a hip shimmy across four-on-the-flour thump. A late 2019 single called "Home" incorporates a one-hit soul wonder from 1971—that's Gloria Barnes singing the hook— over a swaggering, loose-joined kick drum beat and sleek swells of violin, harp flourishes.
Opinion: Fairly Good
I t's a decade since Canadian producer Dan Snaith's breakthrough fifth album, Swim, saw him usurp Hot Chip as your dance tent go-to when it's midnight at an indie festival and you don't feel like heading back to the family camping area just yet. In recent years, though, Snaith's work as Caribou has moved inward, his clubbiest impulses channeled towards his other alias, Daphni. His last Caribou release, 2014's Our Love, explored the birth of his daughter and the shifting, subtle emotional trip of family life.
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