Caribou
Andorra (Merge)
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With his past couple records, Dan Snaith has carved out a niche for himself working at the intersection of electronic laptop-fuckery and swooning bedroom psychedelia, and his campaign to satisfy all your shimmering-pop-reverie needs continues on the new Andorra. Snaith has been the go-to guy for this sort of thing since releasing Up in Flames in 2003, and in many respects Andorra represents a return to that album’s pastoral vibe after the more abstract excursions of The Milk of Human Kindness. But Andorra also finds Snaith branching out, bringing a stronger sense of structure to the table, especially on ballads like ‘She’s the One’ (not a Springsteen cover) and the beautifully melancholy ‘Irene’. The album is at its best when Snaith balances these new instincts with his proven talent for lush, even feverish production, as on the opener ‘Melody Day,’ which runs through an album’s worth of musical flourishes in four minutes. Although Andorra is mostly content to stay in familiar territory, the place is so nice that it’s hard to blame a guy for sticking around.
