Caribou’s New Album 'Suddenly' : An Exhaustive Track by Track Review
I don’t get hung up on albums as much as I used to. There’s so much amazing music coming out, and these days, I mostly fall in love with singles. Yet, once in a while an album will come around that I’ll really want to listen to on a loop. Caribou makes these types of albums, and Suddenly is another slam dunk that I just want to jam in my brain day after day. Brilliant, yet light and emotional. A perfect blend of ingenuity and humanism. Anyone that gives this album less than a perfect score is absolutely out of their mind.
It took me some time to digest the album and explore its many folds, but by popular demand, here it is! Here’s my track-by-track review of his latest opus.
Sister
With its ushered tone and instrumentation, this song echoes the plunky IDM synth of Caribou’s previous album, Our Love. It leaves the listener guessing where this thing is going.
Spoiler alert, Suddenly brings a lot of third-party vocal sampling to the table, and this is foreshadowed by the snippet of lullaby that creeps in midway through this intro track.
Other spoiler alert, I famously suck at identifying samples in songs. I’m off the hook for this one, though, because some Internet sleuthing revealed that it is in fact a sample of Dan Snaith’s mom singing to his sister. There’s no way I could’ve known that from the top of my head, so…
Me : 1, Caribou : 0.
Favorite line : "Rip it up and something new will grow"
You and I
The bouncy staccato chords of the verse are catchy, but at first they got me worried. Just when you’re thinking to yourself : "Is Snaith dumbing down his music for the fair-weather Caribou fan?”, the song explodes in a trap-happy chorus punctuated by pointy synths.
The production nerd in me likes how the texture of the song switches from a wide and expansive sound to a stereo imaging that could fit on the head of a pin.
Also, that chorus bit evolves throughout the song to incorporate the feel of the verse, which is a pretty brilliant way to tie together the different pieces of this modular composition.
I’ll give myself another point for noticing that. Me : 2, Caribou: Still 0.
Favorite line : "Just recall some things / The things I can’t throw away”
Sunny’s Time
To me, this is where the album kicks into gear and declares it’s intent. When the debussyan piano line clashes against a kaleidoscopic rap vocal looped over and over again, it’s like Caribou is telling you : “Hey, buddy! Either you’re in or you're out, mkay?"
I like those drastic choices in an album. This isn’t some kind of interlude, there’s no way for Caribou to wiggle out of this.
I hate how a lot of albums these days sound like a compilation of 14 singles. There’s no cracks for the air to breathe from. This is the complete opposite of that. A strong experimental vision crystalized in a beautiful song that reaches two very distant ends of the musical spectrum and ties them together.
If you are indeed still in after this one, hang on to your fucking hat, things are about to get wild.
Favorite line : "It makes me happy when I see your smile"
New Jade
This song takes the vision initiated in Sunny’s Time and pushes it even further. It’s articulated over a vocal loop that evokes R&B from the 90s, atop of which Snaith’s starts to sketch his own melody.
It’s an obvious nod to UK bass tradition, but it also makes me think of a YouTube rap track like Death Bed, where Powfu loops the chorus of a baebadoobee song and does his thing over it. Singing over a sample of someone singing is the kind of iconoclastic device that “simply isn’t done”. And then someone does it, and it’s cool.
And yep, in case you were wondering, this is the only Suddenly review that draws a parallel between Caribou and Powfu. I checked.
In an interview, Dan Snaith said he wanted the album to be a mix of modern hip hop and outlandish electronic. This is pretty much it.
Favorite lines : "It's like a new first kiss / Yeah, you can start feeling glad / 'Cause you're not gonna miss / Something that you've not had”
Home
This is a more easily identifiable sample, not that I knew it before I looked it up. It’s a great song that nods to the sun-blistered sample-o-scopic music of The Avalanches. It’s also a decontextualized nod to the way old-school hip hop acts like A Tribe Called Quest and Wu-Tang would use sampling to spark their creativity.
This was the first single, and while it denotes a shift in direction for Caribou, in hindsight, it’s also a misdirection for anyone who was trying to guess what the next record would sound like.
Favorite line : "She just does what she pleases / 'Cause she's happy on her own"
Lime
With it’s lively dance drums and it’s acoustic guitar, this would have been one of my favorite on pretty much any other album of Caribou’s flawless discography, On Suddenly, this is a fun wink to fans, but it’s truly a testament to how good this record his that it sort of just blends in, like a charming interlude at the midway point of the album.
It ends on a kind of Ennio Morricone soundalike (I think we’re supposed to call those type beats this side of the post-Internet culture). It's another breath of fresh air that makes the album feel like an eclectic mix from DJ that likes to fuck with the dance floor, knowing he's about to drop an absolute heater.
Favorite lines : ”Holdin' up their hands above their heads / Holdin' up, up, up”
Never Come Back
Simply amazing. This is a dance hit that feels gigantic and confidential at the same time. This is Caribou pulling a classic Caribou.
I might be overthinking it, but I see a reference to the PC Music aesthetic in this one. A cross between Danny L Harle’s Broken Flowers and A. G. Cook’s Beautiful. Might just be the pitched up vocals, though.
Favorite line : “Promise me that you don't regret it”
Filtered Grand Piano
This is one of those songs with a cryptic title that leaves you scratching your head. You just can’t figure out the meaning of it…
It’s a little piano étude preparing you for the third and final act of the album. It’s Dan Snaith’s way of telling you : “Hey, take a break. You’ve earned it."
Favorite line : [MUFFLED CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING IN THE DISTANCE]
Like I Love You
Smooth R&B vocals over a moody guitar. There is an obvious parallel to be made with Radiohead (Weird Fishes/Arpeggi comes to mind). In a parallel universe, it could also have been some kind of guitar trap demo pitched to Juice WRLD or Post Malone.
Favorite line : ”Does he do the things to you that I won't do?”
Magpie
With it’s timeless psychedelic clarity, this is another song that would fit right in on Andorra (and was actually conceived during the Our Love sessions). At this point of the album, I miss the bunker spirit of earlier tracks…
But as I said before, I like albums that take you on a journey, and it makes sense that things start to wind down at this point.
Favorite line : ”Something's got to give to turn things 'round”
Ravi
If the reviews I’ve read are to be believed, this one seems a bit divisive. I love it though. It reminds me of the weird understated house of Our Love, and it parallels Never Come Back‘s energy, with a more mature aesthetic. Also, it’s looped vocals tie the album together nicely before the grand finale.
This is another one that will get crazy in a live setting.
Favorite line : “And you hold me like you used to do”
Cloud Song
Speaking of tying things together.
Cloud song sends back to the album’s opener (plinky-plunky IDM synth arpeggios and falsetto vocals), and takes it to a different place, i.e. a crazy emotional crescendo of synth tones and textures à la Can’t Do Without You.
It’s Dan Snaith's way of telling you : "Here’s your fucking Caribou album, are you happy now? Can I go back to making straight up dance music with my side-project Daphni?” At this point, he takes the sunglasses from your shirt pocket, puts them on defiantly, hops on his motorcycle, does a couple donuts and skids away.
At least that’s how I picture it.
Favorite line : ”Drown in the sand beneath the waves”
PHOTO CREDIT : The Line of Best Fit