Oxford's oldest student newspaper

Independent since 1920

Review: Caribou — Our Love

Four Stars

★★★★☆

The remarkable thing about Caribou’s new album is that it manages to make you want simultaneously to lie down and to get up and dance.

It conjures up a synthesised world of electronic texture, as soothing as it is lively; with rhythmic bass lines pulsing through the hypnotic tracks with impressive seamlessness.

Dan Snaith’s signature psychedelia has been emboldened by a dose of deep house obvious in the compelling track, ‘Mars’, with a dash of R&B thrown in for good measure. Title track ‘Our Love’, meanwhile, introduces stirrings of dub- step that cement its inescapable danceability.

Opening single, ‘Can’t Do Without You’, seeps under the skin and captures the attention, perhaps for longer than its simplistic repetition deserves. That said, the minimalism of the lyrics helps to make plain the complexity of the music behind, which is, after all, the real magic of this intriguing record in which wordless sound does most of the talking.

There’s something mesmerising about aptly named track ‘Dive’ with the its rippling melodies falling into tantalising drops and refrains. The addictive, overlapping drones of follow-up, ‘Second Chance’ are spoilt somewhat by the guest-vocals of Jessy Lanza which verge on grating by the song’s end, but given the strength of the rest, this minor blip is easy to overlook.

In reaching out to so many different genres, Our Love casts itself as a chameleon to suit every mood. But where it triumphs most is unquestionably on the dance floor. 

Check out our other content

Most Popular Articles