Album Review: The Knife - Shaking The Habitual

The Knife
Shaking The Habitual
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

It has been almost a million years (in this Internet age timeframe) since the brother/sister duo of Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer released their classic record Silent Shout. In the interim between releases, Karin went off on her own with her Fever Ray project while Olof explored the world of techno under his Oni Ayhun moniker. With each new Knife record, the duo amps up their trajectory. Deep Cuts' twisted, yet sunny synthpop gave way to Silent Shout's dense sonic tapestry, in turn, leading to their most inscrutable, frustrating, mesmerizing, confounding, sublime records yet, Shaking The Habitual. Based on the press release alone you know you are in for a heady listen. With its themes of anti-wealth, corruption, consumption, gender roles, and matriarchal/patriarchal constructs, Shaking The Habitual is certainly not going to show up high on the Top 40 anytime soon. For me, the album is always going to be something more to appreciate rather than to love. There is a brilliant album within this record's staggering 98 minutes, but it takes awhile to suss it out; with the duo seemingly spending more time attempting to be obtuse for obtuse's sake.

The opening salvo of "A Tooth For An Eye" and "Full Of Fire" are classic Knife and begin Shaking The Habitual off on the right tone. "A Tooth For Eye" is full of Asian-inflected keyboards and clattering percussion, Karin's voice again masked and heavily torqued within an inch of its life. The song steadily builds layer upon layer until its soft focus close out.



"Full Of Fire" is The Knife in full on aggression mode; brutal, industrial-tinged percussion brackets echoing, whirling keyboards as Karin's vocals coo, whisper, growl and yell. The menace and sinister nature of the track is truly palpable.



The tracks, and several others use the standard Knife protocols but tweak them in interesting new directions. These tracks speak more to me than their more experimental tracks that are so avant garde as to be unlistenable at times. But thankfully, these tracks never seem to overwhelm the entire record. There are still plenty of ripe fruits to pick from the tree. The slithery, percussive heavy "Without You My Life Would Be Boring" gets under your skin with its quirky syncopation and flourishes of Asian instrumentation. The doom laden feel of "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" is exhilarating and unnerving at the same time and, for me, is the most effective track on the record. The due never overstepping their reach, in full control of their approach.



While the brutal and claustrophobic "Stay Out Here," a collaboration with Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum and artist/writer Emily Roysdon, is a clattering, almost atonal attack on the senses.

Where the album really doesn't work for me is with their more experimental tracks that seem to be arty and arcane for their own sake. The interstitial instrumentals "Crake" and "Oryx" are pure noise that have no sense of place or continuity within the record, and the album centerpiece, the 20 minute drone "Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realized," is a head-scratching anomaly that, while meditative and "pretty," never really makes its purpose known. Even more inscrutable, and quite frankly annoying as hell, "Fracking Fluid Injection" is ten mind-numbing minutes of Inuit throat singing that would be the perfect soundtrack for hell. Thankfully, these horrendous moments are tempered by other, less intrusive tracks. Closing song "Ready To Lose" has a loopy throb and mysterious vocal from Karin that trails the record out on a nice note, while "Networking" has a furious techno throb and build that gets under the skin easily.

I will admit that after the long wait, I was quite frankly very disappointed with Shaking The Habitual. Where Silent Shout was non-traditional and avant garde at times, there was a strong base of hooks and atmospheres that made the experimental nature of the record more palatable. It took many listens of this record for me to get even a slight grasp on it, but luckily there were still a majority of tracks that were able to speak to me. Unfortunately, I mostly find myself skipping over the more obtuse tracks. So, buried within this leviathan of a beast is a pretty decent record, albeit one that you really have to search to find.

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 piques 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.