Album Review: An Album by Korallreven by Korallreven

Pay no mind the fact that Korallreven hail from Sweden. Disregard the fact that the most common adjective likely to be ascribed to their music is “tropical.” And please…ignore that pan flute and rainstick play a prominent role in nine-minute album closer “Comin’ Down.” (Really. Forget it.) Because, the fact is this: Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder (also a member of The Radio Dept.) are capable of transcending the expected by crafting music that straddles the line between summer bliss and autumnal melancholy.

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There must be some hard-to-fathom factor in the DNA of young musicians in Sweden that causes them to make the sunniest, happiest, warmest music you could imagine. Not all of them, of course, and Sweden does have a legendarily dark metal scene, but enough to make you wonder what’s going on. Whether it’s the fresh-faced joy of Acid House Kings, the oddly cheerful melancholy of the Concretes, or the Balearic charms of the Tough Alliance, the music of Sweden is like a giant shot of life restoring goodness.

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More than two years passed between Swedish duo Korallreven's first single, the glittering, acoustically-tinged "Loved-Up", and their full-fledged debut LP, An Album by Korallreven. In internet years, that's practically a decade, but then, Korallreven and their fellow countrymen work at a pace that exists outside normal measurements of time (the exception being jj, who seemingly churn out slices of heavy-lidded pop at will). It took Korallreven close to a year to follow "Loved-Up" with last year's "The Truest Faith"; the arrival of An Album by Korallreven itself was promised for later in 2010.

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Shrouded in mystery, Swedish electronic duo Korallreven released a series of succinctly titled mixtapes representative of the kind of resonance they wanted to implement into their carefully constructed sound. Bearing no explanation except emphasizing the word “dream” in all three, it appears their modus vivendi is that of senseless escape, in that what begins as a process of twiddling modified loops ultimately becomes an experience in itself. We’ve all partaken in the activity of dreaming, so what better way to visualize it than to thematically present it as literal as its titles perceptibly imply.

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Balearic Swedish duo Korallreven—which includes Marcus Joons and The Radio Dept. keyboardist Daniel Tjäder--craft dreamy pop tunes worthy of their debut album's gossamer-thin cover artwork. The band was ushered into the good graces of the music blog network with promising singles, "Honey Mine" and "The Truest Faith." Both showcased the usual tropes of Swedish Balearic music.

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Swedish dream-pop duo Korallreven have never played live, have shrouded themselves in mystery, and have spent the last two years trickling out singles and mixtapes online. Such strategies aimed at capturing the attention of a blogosphere hungry for new music have become a familiar part of the music world in 2011, but Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder have proved more adept than most. To a significant subset of web tastemakers hooked on the duo’s serene and tropical electronica, An Album by Korallreven is now one of the most eagerly anticipated records of the year.

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With dubstep and eurotrance dominating today’s electronic soundscape, a good chill-out album isn’t just relaxing—it’s revitalizing. An Album By Korallreven, the latest LP from the aforementioned Swedish pop-tronica duo, is just as refreshing. A velvety love letter to jaunty ’80s pop and the naughts’ ultrachill lo-fi, An Album aims for the pop appeal of peers like Royksopp but swaps the icy swagger for an understated and organic approach.In other words, don’t look to any of the cuts on this record to hold you over until the next Robyn album: This is a soundtrack for nights spent curled up in a Snuggie with your significant other.

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