Albums to watch

Swim

Caribou

Swim

Latest album of dance pop from Canadian electronic musician Daniel Snaith who has also recorded under the name Manitoba

ADM rating[?]

8.1

Label
City Clang
UK Release date
19/04/2010
  1. 9.1 |   A.V. Club

    It’s fitting that Snaith occasionally drops arty pretense in favor of kinetic payoff: His music is generous, so it was only a matter of time before he returned to electronica, the most luxurious genre of all
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  2. 9.0 |   Rave Magazine

    A superb collection of carefully-constructed, well-layered leftfield dance music – and one of 2010’s highlights
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  3. 9.0 |   Bowlegs

    The flowing dance fused beats are the heartbeat to a host of sounds, samples and smooth telling vocals.
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  4. 9.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    The vocal hooks and emotional vulnerability on these songs lift the album from ‘perfect record to soundtrack summer road trips’ to ‘perfect record to soundtrack your life.’ It really is that good
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  5. 9.0 |   musicOMH

    An album that is infused with a rhythm, a groove and a watery loveliness all of its own
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  6. 9.0 |   The Fly

    A world of damaged electronica, orchestral ostentation and kerb-swerving incantational vocals is simply stunning
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  7. 9.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    This is blissed-out electronica, that puts human warmth on a par with electronic experimentalism to create something entirely new to listen to
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  8. 8.5 |   Beats Per Minute

    This is outright funky techno, bursting at the seams with those rich, organic sounds that many a Caribou fan have loved on previous albums
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  9. 8.5 |   The Quietus

    Gone is that forced sunny demeanour in favour of bone-smashing hard white tiles of sound, while any light appears refracted from distant surfaces. Swim is an album that comes in from the sunfields and retreats into night
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  10. 8.5 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Filled to the point of bursting with hypnotizing beats and mesmerizing melodies, all while maintaining the subtle grandeur that has been at the heart of Caribou’s consistently inventive output.
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  11. 8.5 |   BBC

    Tightly regimented, beautifully controlled beats designed to nourish the mind of both maker and listener
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  12. 8.4 |   Pitchfork

    Dan Snaith retains his singular identity as an artist - and Swim is a reminder that even at his most challenging, the man's compositional capabilities can dazzle
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  13. 8.0 |   Clash

    Five albums and numerous aliases in, Dan Snaith has found a guise that suits him perfectly
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  14. 8.0 |   The List

    A singular, innovative and consistent – not to say loveable – creature indeed
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  15. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    If Snaith's next album picks up where this leaves off, it will be extraordinary
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  16. 8.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    A pulsatingly tender dancefloor journey
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  17. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    A complete departure from its predecessor's warm Sixties psychedelia... brings it closer to the recent work of Hot Chip and Snaith's fellow solo laptop fiddler, Four Tet
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  18. 8.0 |   The Times

    Odessa ranks alongside the best of Hot Chip’s geek-disco, while Sun evokes a soundclash between Mr Scruff and Jeff Mills
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  19. 8.0 |   The Observer

    With Alice Coltrane-like harp runs, meditation bowls, rave stabs and Doppler effect dub wobbles, he creates music full of surprises that is always melodic
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  20. 8.0 |   NME

    A superlative record to stack alongside Four Tet's 'There Is Love In You' in the electronica-for-grown-ups stakes. Print edition only

  21. 8.0 |   Eye Weekly

    You can moan and wail about your cardigan-wearing dorm-neighbours’ love for it, but the craft speaks for itself
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  22. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    There are more than enough moments of sun-kissed beauty and sonic originality to set Swim apart as an early summer soundtrack
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  23. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Synthesises free jazz horns, Tibetan percussion, fluttering flutes and acid basslines. Print edition only

  24. 8.0 |   Mojo

    It's a triumph, and the best new record I've heard this year. Print edition only

  25. 8.0 |   Q

    As mesmerising as it is innovative, Swim is a record you want to dive in to. Print edition only

  26. 8.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    There's a pervading sense of intimacy to the whole thing
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  27. 8.0 |   All Music

    Even though you could call this move toward the dancefloor a surprise, Swim retains all the qualities that make Snaith and Caribou so impressive
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  28. 8.0 |   No Ripcord

    Reaffirms the supreme artistic capability that is Caribou
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  29. 8.0 |   State

    Each separate track on Swim is calculated like a difficult maths equation, worked out with excellent precision, bringing together something that gets more than just a groove on
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  30. 8.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    With Swim, Caribou has transcended the confines of indie pop and electronica
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  31. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    Deep, warm, lush and enticing, the tracks here exude a strident, defiant, almost cocky belief in its creator’s abilities ... a beautifully trippy affair
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  32. 8.0 |   Spin

    Swim builds drama with fluttered flutes, processed strings, skronking saxophone, or a wheezing horn meandering over a defiant, ominous bass
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  33. 7.0 |   Blurt

    For a clubbish album, it's got a lot of bright moments, mostly on the tracks where Snaith indulges his impulse to trick out the music with quick changes and unique layers which come to the fore in sequence
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  34. 7.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Steeped in rewarding sonic conflict
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  35. 7.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    While there are a few big stand-out tracks, the rest lend themselves more as personal experiments that end up being hard to stick to
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  36. 7.0 |   The Digital Fix

    Swim has to be listened to on good quality headphones or really good quality speakers. It is completely 3D. The sounds swish from left to right and fly at you from miles in front. But, rather than feeling underwater, it feels quite cinematic. Like a sound art installation you can take home
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  37. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    Caribou proves on Swim that he can still make the kind of pop one dreams of
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Caribou: Swim

  • Download full album for just £4.99
  • 1. Odessa £0.99
  • 2. Sun £0.99
  • 3. Kaili £0.99
  • 4. Found Out £0.99
  • 5. Bowls £0.99
  • 6. Leave House £0.99
  • 7. Hannibal £0.99
  • 8. Lalibela £0.99
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