Sunday, May 6, 2012

Miike Snow Nears Perfection


Miike Snow offers an interesting proposition on album number two. Rather than dwell in the past and continue to crank out the slacker meets electro tunes they became famous for, the band essentially went to sleep per chance to dream. And dream they did. Now rather than sounding like a bunch of mindless 20 something’s lacking motivation, they've departed upon Ambien fueled excursions into the heavens. They’ve taken dream pop and so successfully fused it with electro, house, and all kinds of trippy electronic sounds that they should serve as the poster children for what sleeping via medication can do for you.

Happy To You is the sort of record that slowly drifts into the heavens and sees no point in hurrying to get back…ever. At times sounding like the unofficial soundtrack to Jack Horkheimer's Star Gazer or something like the space disco at the end of the universe, Miike Snow is so creative on how they shape songs, craft hooks and use atmospherics to set the tone for each song. It’s impressive stuff. Sure many of these songs are ridiculously danceable, but they offer so much more than a series of banged out beats in repetition. This stuff is deep, beautiful, and so well crafted that Happy To You is as close to perfect as you can get without actually being perfect.

Unusual in it's approach, crafty in it's creation and brilliant in it's brainwashing, Happy To You is a unique sounding electronic record that takes everything Miike Snow loves and pulls the covers over it. Piano house sidles up to horn sections, swirly pop cuddles with bubbly synths and the whole thing leaves you satisfyingly stupefied. Miike Snow pushes things forward by using its imagination and the results are stunning.

Happy To You is a record that grows on you faster than penicillin grows in a petri dish. If any record right now was destined to be an Ipod commercial Happy To You would be it. Happy To You might be a little bit chancy but that's what makes it such a special record. These guys simply have a way to make his songs sound weird, dreamy and cool all at the same time.

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