SoundTrax: Shaken and Stirred – 'Happy To You' by Miike Snow

posted in: Features • Reviews & Playlists

Part of what we try to do at SoundTrax is give some credence back to the idea of having tracks in a certain order. With the rise of the single, less attention has been paid to the order of a playlist or album, and frankly, we just think people have become lazy. There’s no set formula on how to build an album, but there are certainly albums that were put together with more care than others. So we’re trying something new for this edition: Instead of soundtracking a specific event with music from various artists, I’ve gone ahead and re-arranged the latest release from super-producer trio Miike Snow in an attempt to create a more coherent album.

Here’s a little taste of the story that Miike Snow are soundtracking with this latest record:

This is not an album review”there are plenty of those for you to read already. Read on for an alternate interpretation of the idea Miike Snow attempts to get across, whatever that happens to be.

We kick off with the infectious claps of  Vase before the horn and piano stabs of Pretender launch us into the unapologetically haunting Devils Work. Moving back into the light, God Help This Divorce is like a modern take on psychedelic-era Beatles, but as Andrew Wyatt sings she was a beauty queen, but I held her down, down, down to one of the happiest melodies on the album, you can’t help but feel that something is not quite right in the world of the Jack-o-lope. As the dubstep-influenced bassline of Bavarian #1 (Say You Will) gives way to euphoric strings that highlight the end of the track, it seems that this moody trio have finally found the perfect formula for introspective indie-tronic-pop. That is until the duo of The Wave followed by Paddling Out washes over you with so much force yet simultaneous subtlety; it’s easy to forget you’re listening to a bunch of knob-twiddlers, not ax-men. The transition into the indie pop Archipelago is one of the more jarring from this playlist, but provides a nice highlight to the sonic range of this band, who display their playful side on Enter the Jokers Lair. Closing out this shuffled album is the droning, hypnotic Black Tin Box which features Lykke Li, who’s vocals sit pleasantly atop the chaotic, machine-gun-like soundscape.

Upon completing this blog, I came across the Miike Snow YouTube channel and was treated to the second part of the bizarre music video above. It’s clear that the guys behind Miike Snow have a vision for where they want to take this record and the story they want to tell with it, even though it’s not the story I wanted to hear.