By Alan Cho
Ever since changing his name from Manitoba-due to a lawsuit that still doesn’t make sense-Caribou has been chugging ahead with his unique brand of kaleidoscope pop. Perhaps sole member Dan Snaith no longer sleeps, because the sound of this record is so light and dreamy that one senses the whole recording process was done during REM sleep. The glut of charming melodies and soft disinterested voices brings to mind the work of the Beta Band and Olivia Tremor Control and the sheer amount of sonic layers makes this an easy record to listen to repeatedly.
The album’s keeper track is the beautiful “Melody Day,” with a close second being the sublime “After Hours.” The odd duck though is “She’s The One,” which was cowritten by the Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan and its placement in the middle of the album kind of wrecks the flow to an otherwise terrific track order.
Usually, when a band sets out to make a record with a lot of far-out sounds, it flops spectacularly because the search for sounds surpasses the songwriting element. Snaith seems to be one of the rare few who can marry the two, and perhaps now with the backing of Merge Records-home of the Arcade Fire, other indie darlings as well as some likely very good lawyers-Caribou will finally get some of the mainstream respect he deserves.