Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart

(Muso's Guide, December 24, 2008)

Single review

What is an artiste to do when she sets out on the cold, weary road to solo success? Work her knuckles to the bone to get noticed, perhaps? Play every grubby toilet up and down the land? Or maybe just relax in the comforting knowledge that anything you commit to record will be gratefully received by a public intent on celebrating your every note?

Take Fever Ray. The name for solo work from Karin Dreijer Andersson ‐ the Swedish Alison Goldfrapp, if you like ‐ there is plenty to recommend the provenance. For one thing, Andersson is still one half of Swedish electronica duo The Knife. Currently on hiatus, the band have had tremendous success in Sweden - their last album, 2006’s Silent Shout, reached number one in the Swedish charts, they have won six Grammys in their home country and their song “Heartbeats” has been turned into a worldwide hit by José Gonzalez.

Andersson’s talent really is not in question, but her wisdom at releasing ‘If I Had A Heart’ is. After all, as a trailer for March 2009’s debut long-playing release, it is a dour affair.

From its the throb of reverb which forms its introduction, the chanted lyrics “This will never end ‘cos I want more - more, give me more, give me more,” goes the vocal, sodden in repetitive bassline.

The song takes the grittiness of something off Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell’s Sunday At Devil Dirt and weaves it into a mesmeric soundscape, the tattoo of the beat holding everything together. Which is not terrible, of course - but it falls quite a way short of inspirational, or even exciting.

‘If I Had A Heart’ is stripped back, unfussy and straightforward. It is also, it seems, easy for Andersson to release without worrying how people will rate it. Must try harder, young lady.