Tomas Barfod
Love Me
Release Date: Jun 10, 2014
Genre(s): Electronic, Electronica, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Electronic
Record label: Secretly Canadian
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Album Review: Love Me by Tomas Barfod
Very Good, Based on 7 Critics
Based on rating 84%%
Tomas Barfod’s second album, Love Me, is your summer jam—full of bright, catchy hooks to steer you toward the sun and moody, deep-cut grooves to guide you back from the stars. Like 2012’s Salton Sea, Barfod once again brings his DJ sensibilities and talents to mixing sounds and transforming them into emotional experiences. The Danish musician is joined by a multitude of varied guests for this trip there and back, including a wistful Here We Go Magic’s Luke Temple, a laidback Night Beds, a soulful Pell and a saccharine Sleep Party People, in addition to longtime Barfod collaborators Jeppe Kjellberg and Nina K, both alums of Salton Sea.
Based on rating 8/10
Using Danish outfit WhoMadeWho as a jump-off point (several LPs, EPs and remixes in the bank seems a safe point from which to venture from solo), producer Tomas Barfod's second LP, Love Me, follows in the synth-pop tradition of prior releases, with a move towards a more defined framework for its tracks. Love Me not only benefits from, but thrives on the immense weight of its guest vocalists, pushing it well beyond the realm of simply good to absolutely stunning — a melodic filling of myriad guests that makes your heart hurt in the best possible way. Opener "Bell House" starts slowly, a piano chord repeated while a beat slowly builds underneath, but it's Luke Temple's gripping melancholy that grounds the piece.
Based on rating 7.5/10
Head here to submit your own review of this album. Tomas Barfod was somewhat taken aback by the popularity of his debut record, 2012's Salton Sea. An excellent collection of forward thinking dance tracks that evoked the best of Daft Punk's Discovery, but with a distinct sound all of its own, it was an album that was made for club land as much as for personal enjoyment.
Based on rating 7.1/10
Tomas Barfod churned out more new material over the first three months of 2014 than most artists produce in a full year: with a solo EP, a handful of one-off singles, and an album with his band WhoMadeWho all released before the end of March, nobody would’ve looked sideways if he spent the rest of the year on vacation. But just three months after the release of the Pulsing EP, Barfod is back with a proper follow-up to his 2012 debut Salton Sea, and the title of his new record, Love Me, seems like a bit of a laugh on Barfod’s part. Even if you feel the least bit lukewarm about his music, he’ll wear you down with an hour of mild, mid-tempo body music until you grant him your grudging admiration.
Based on rating 7/10
Tomas Barfod's sophomore solo album, 2014's Love Me, is an atmospheric, introspective work much in the same vein as his 2012 debut, Salton Sea. Starting out as a percussionist, Barfod has built a varied career experimenting across genres as a DJ, producer, and drummer with his trio WhoMadeWho featuring guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg and bassist Tomas Høffding (both of whom appear on Love Me). Given his eclectic résumé, it should come as no surprise that Love Me, while being a primarily electronic endeavor, retains a deeply organic aesthetic.
Based on rating 3.5/5
When Danish electronic auteur Tomas Barfod taps in a beat and cranks the hardware for one of his solo releases, does he worry about undermining his position as the (real, human) drummer in Copenhagen trio WhoMadeWho? More likely he’s just happy to rest his arms. Either way, at its best his music outshines WhoMadeWho’s middling Soulwaxisms; ‘Love Me’ follows up 2012 debut album ‘Salton Sea’, but edges away from sleek, techno throb towards something more tender and torch song. His choice of vocalists aid this considerably: the striking falsetto of Here We Go Magic’s Luke Temple caps ‘Bell House’, but Swedish indie-folkist Nina Kinert graces four tracks and steals the show on the electro-tinted ‘Pulsing’ and the exquisitely blank ‘Aftermath’.
Based on rating 5.3/10
Tomas Barfod is for all intents and purposes an electronic musician, but that label takes on a different meaning depending on which of his projects you’re hearing. Barfod kicks out straight-up house music with Kasper Bjørke in their duo, Filur. As a member of the Danish trio WhoMadeWho, the producer and drummer explores experimental electro pop. And on his solo work, Barfod falls somewhere in between.
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