Artist: Miike Snow
Album: Happy to You
Label: Universal Republic Records
Rating: 3.5
It would be wrong to call Miike Snow’s most recent album, Happy to You, bland. But when we really face it, examine it and turn it in our hands, it’s more or less an uninspiring collection.
Not because it fails to muster good sounds or showcase excellence in spurts, but because it ultimately doesn’t lift toward any higher plain or even penetrate one.
This has a lot to do with the lead vocals, which, when you listen to the album in its entirety, are exhausting. In stints, the vocals are inspired, stylized — even excellent. In bulk, they are flimsy and totally off-putting.
The auditory frequency of Miike Snow is one largely characterized by a type of tonal discord, an off-key stylization that has helped it toward immense popularity. Thus it’s difficult to naysay what has largely defined its success: its sound as an off-chord electronic hybrid. And yet, the album blends together in that operative vein in a way that is disappointing.
It is playing at Coachella the next two weekends, and I’ll have a chance to see them live. Judging by the album, it’s mostly worth it — partly because the music is great in spurts, and partly to see if it holds up live over an extended session.
Songs to check out: “The Wave,” “Vase,” “Pretender”
For fans of: MGMT, Passion Pit
— James O’Hara
