Caribou Andorra CD

Dan Snaith's project, Caribou, has always displayed a great reverence for the splashy opulence of '60s psychedelic-pop. If earlier albums, UP IN FLAMES and MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS, borrowed liberally from his influences--sounding much like a panoply of carefully crafted snippets from the most blissed-out moments of pop music's past 30 years--ANDORRA polishes out the rough edges to reveal actual songs. Despite the newfound emphasis on songwriting cohesion, the album revels in deep layers of textural embellishment. Mixing in sound-collages, symphonic passages, and layered vocals, the music recalls the bold pop experimentation of George Martin and Brian Wilson. The opener, "Melody Day," combines a big-beat drum pattern with a dense but melodic wall-of-sound--rippling electronics and guitar cascade around Snaith's wispy falsetto, sounding like a throwback to both '60s garage pop and '90s shoegaze. On the album's closer, "Niobe," Snaith's perfectly constructed pop utopia unravels slightly, unveiling a fractured, inchoate wash of sound--almost as if he is trying to disclose the music's own underlying illusionism.
As Dan Snaith became an accomplished producer with his Manitoba and Caribou albums of the 2000s, the breathtaking vitality of his early work gave way to music that may have been more accomplished, but was never as interesting or as fun to listen to. Andorra is just the kind of break with the past that he needed after 2005's relatively lackluster The Milk of Human Kindness. His first album on Merge, it's less a collection of innovative sounds and productions (like The Milk of Human Kindness) and more an album of songs, united by his motivations and desires. These tracks are first and foremost songs -- and not just because Snaith is singing a bit more. There's less of a "programmed" sound, although the productions are dense with tape cut-ups, layered harmonies, and various percussion lines threaded through the mix. And the sheer strength of the material is immediately apparent when the opener, "Melody Day," reveals itself as the best moment in Snaith's career. First of all, it sounds like it was recorded in 1966 by a British band that just missed the cut for the Nuggets, Vol. 2 box set, recalling '60s touchstones like the Move or Soft Machine. Not strictly a throwback, though, its ineffably crisp and kaleidoscopic production style ranks with the best of Dungen or Fiery Furnaces or Animal Collective (which is high praise indeed). Andorra may be a bedroom record, but it certainly doesn't sound like a bedroom record; it has the energy and intensity of group participation, and that makes it Snaith's best yet. ~ John BushRolling Stone (p.90) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Layers of flute loops, bells, drum fills and warped strings cushion Snaith's blissed-out harmonies on organized-chaos jams like 'Eli' and 'Sandy'..."
Spin (p.124) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[F]ull of lithe vocals, swooping keyboards, distant drums, and assorted benign flashbacks."
Entertainment Weekly (p.130) - "[H]is latest plunges into the rich, organic psychedelia he's explored tentatively on past efforts." -- Grade: A-
Uncut (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Lead single 'Melody Day' is the most striking result of Snaith's immersion in psychedelic soft-pop: it's an ultra-vivid dream of a Zombie song, blown up to epic dimensions."