Korallreven: An Album By Korallreven - Album Review

Korallreven
An Album By Korallreven
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

The Swedish duo Korallreven, made up of Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder, the latter moonlighting from his day job with The Radio Dept., arrived on the scene a couple of years ago with the blissed out, acoustic brushed track "Loved Up," and have taken their sweet time coming out with the full length. The resulting album is full of hushed/whispered vocals, woozy, hazy synths, Balearic rhythms, and chillwave/shoegaze textures. It is a nice antidote for cold weather days, the rush of sound enveloping you in its warm glow. I am supposing the brutal Scandinavian winters makes artists do anything to conjure up visions and feelings of warmer climes. While An Album By Korallreven doesn't quite equal or surpass the brilliance of "Loved Up," the album itself works more as a collective whole, the parts summing up to something greater.

"Loved-Up" is included here, and still retains its rush of synths and gauzy vocals.



Follow up single, "The Truest Faith" is a notch below the perfection of "Loved-Up," going for a more traditional pop structure, the beat not as insistent, but still overlaid with a gorgeous covering of strings, angelic synths, and acoustic guitars.



"As Young As Yesterday" has a lovely, layered sound, reminiscent of the more poppier tracks from Animal Collective, but more shoegazy.



"Honey Mine" even works a lilting, reggae vibe, that fits well within their aesthetic.



But too often on An Album By Korallreven, the texture of the track takes over the melody, and all you are left with is a long, meandering instrumental. "Sa Sa Samoa" builds on beds of cloudy synths with African chants and choral notes, always threatening to build and release, but falls always short.



"Keep Your Eyes Shut" repetitively loops its vocal sample in what appears to resemble a mantra, but ends up more annoying than transformative.

An Album By Korallreven (Hype Machine Exclusive) by Acéphale

"Comin' Closer" comes across as an 80s synth pastiche, that lacks any drama or sense of purpose.



However, closing track "Comin' Down" hints at what might have been, a 9 minute track that builds from analog synths and rain forest flutes, but still has ebbs and flows, creating a sense of tension and propulsion.



An Album By Korallreven works either as chill out music or as a sunny, Balearic accompaniment to a beautiful summer day, it mutates and takes on whatever guise is needed. There is something so inviting about this album, that even its missteps seem more charming than off-putting. At any rate, the duo are obviously making music they want to make, and as long as they continue to hit those highs sometimes, it doesn't get much better than this.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.