Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Musick is a big fan of albums that feel like they exist in their own little world. They get released in the same way as other albums, but listening to them feels almost alien, as if the only way to fully appreciate it is to dress up in white face paint and put on a blonde wig. Maybe that's just with this album. Created by Karin Dreijer Andersson, aka one half of The Knife, Fever Ray is an eerie concoction, mixing creepy, slow-moving melodies with Andersson's often heavily treated vocals. On the one hand everything is made to keep the listener unsettled and at arm's length, but there's also a warm core to the record that centres around the birth of Andersson's child. The mundane – lyrics about dishwasher tablets, tending to a neighbour's plants, etc – is twisted and contorted, whilst the harrowing 'Concrete Walls' hints at post-natal depression. As with Bjork's Vespertine, it's an album that deals with the domestic, but also seems to rally against greed and the need for power (“More, give me more, give me more”). It's an album that you need to live with, it's dark secrets revealing themselves slowly and carefully. Best not to listen to it if you're having a bad day, but if you're looking to be transported to some kind of dark netherworld then this is a brilliant place to start.
Key track: 'Seven'
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It's the terrifying gift that keeps giving. As we've mentioned numerous times before, Fever Ray (aka Karin from The Knife) has made a pretty amazing album and to accompany songs from said album, she's also made some spectacular videos. So that fans of drip-feed, eerily delicate electro-pop have something lovely to open on Christmas day, the self-titled debut has been re-packaged and will now include a DVD of all the videos as well as two covers. 
This is the video for one of those extra songs, 'Stranger Than Kindness', originally by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Please note the air of general disquiet, the claustrophobic atmosphere and marvel at all the LASERS!
In related news, The Guardian newspaper will be giving fans the chance to download a Fever Ray live album. All you need to do is purchase a copy of the paper on Saturday, find the unique URL and Bob's your mother's brother. Oh, you'll need a computer too.
This is the tracklisting:
If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concrete Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty
Dry And Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness
When I Grow Up
The album was taken from a show in Sweden on March 28 2009, so if you were there you can listen closely to hear the exact moment your mind was blown.
Apologies in advance for just throwing a video on here in lieu of any actual content, but this isn't just any old video. No, it's actually a new video with an old woman in it. It's by Fever Ray, it's called 'Seven' and there's something deeply disturbing about it all.
Interesting fact - this video was directed by Johan Renck, who also directed Beyoncé's 'Me, Myself & I' video. Imagine Beyoncé dancing around a barn with some demonic cows...
Having spent most of our Sunday at church, we like nothing more then to come home and watch something possibly made by the Devil himself. 'Triangle Walks' is the new single from Fever Ray's incredible debut album and it's accompanied by yet another startling video. Lights flicker, shadows creep and our Karin wears some spooky face paint and hides inside a giant Ewok. It's essentially a performance video, with the wind-swept lamps, green lasers and (terrifying) backing band all making appearances at her recent gigs, of which there are a handful this summer in the UK.
Imagine that song played on Chris Moyles Radio 1 show? Imagine how much of a better world it would be if that were a possibility. There's a slim chance he could play this, the Rex The Dog remix, which essentially speeds the whole thing up and makes it sound like Depeche Mode.
