Just in...Miike Snow: Happy to You

    Just released March 26th, Miike Snow's sophomore album, Happy to You is a tribute to musical ingenuity of the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland; think Sigur Ròs, Björk and Rubik). Their pop/indie pop scene has so much more to offer in general than America, which relies too heavily on its hip hop counterpart, while Swedish group Miike Snow pulls heavily from the Dance Club venue that Europe is known for. I guess this is just a bias on my part, against hip hop and towards the House Electronica genre, but to me the latter does a better job juxtaposing melody with rhythm and creating arrangements that include a wider variety of timbres and styles. You may, of course, decide for yourself how you feel about all this [mumbo jumbo]. Or just like it or don't like it, it may or may not be true that I try too hard to have an intellectual opinion about...well, everything. In the end, I like this album fairly well. It may not make it into my favorites for this year (that is looking quite ahead to be sure), but I have enjoyed listening to Happy to You for the last few days on Miike Snow's MySpace page.
    Anyway, Miike Snow takes its name from a mutual friend, Mike Snow, while adding the extraneous "i" from the surname of Japanese film director, Takashi Miike. It seems he has been rather busy since his directorial debut in 1991, but I do not recognize any of his work. Miike Snow's trio membership includes: Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Andrew Wyatt. The former two grew up together and worked on other projects first, such as Bloodshy & Avant, before reuniting while working on (of all things) a Britney Spears album, which is where they met their third member Andrew Wyatt. Their first release was self-titled, Miike Snow (2009). You may recognize the songs "Animal" or Since then, they have done a number of remixes for various artists, including: Depeche Mode, Passion Pit, Peter Bjorn and John, Kings of Leon, I Blame Coco and Vampire Weekend. They also co-founded a record label in 2011, INGRID, along with bands Peter Bjorn and John, Lykke Li and Dungeon. Miike Snow uses the Jackalope outline on all their products it seems and a special Happy to You Jackalope Edition is available that contains two bonus tracks and some remixes.
    Happy to You is filled with more intense Dance beats and Electro Pop synth or electronics, yet is a turn from the lighter side, more feel good, under produced Indie Dance Pop that Miike Snow introduced. This is one of those rare times when I truly think their next album improved on the primary. That does not tend to happen so much, because the great bands just create something entirely new (not better necessarily) while maintaining their uniqueness, while the more mainstream bands tend to go south and lose their individuality. Highlights of Happy to You are:
(1) "Enter the Joker's Lair": has a cool dropping sound at the start that continues throughout and fits in nicely when the beat and chords enter. Nice atmospheric track.
(2) "The Wave": reminds me of something Rubik would write, because it is this march like, snare driven jubilant sound.
(3) "Devil's Work": has some great brass backups, using french horns! and the latter part has this really sweet Electronica section with the synths.
(4) "Vase": sets a nice rhythmic ostinato (continuing throughout) from the start with electronic beats and claps. nice tune over top too.
(5) "God Help This Divorce": Sort of a laid back dreamy ballad.
(6) "Bavarian #1": also reminds me of Rubik, with the snare and counter melodic material in the background. Just happy and enjoyable to listen to, nice syncopation too.
(7) "Pretender": has that famous drum break, the "amen break", or some implementation or variation of it, underneath. The whole track is Dance material truly and reminds me more of a Trance track than anything else if you just took away the vocals.
(8) "Archipelago": sort of a throwback to the Beatles it seems, with the song about an airplane or whatever. It is simple and fun and maybe silly too--does sound more like Miike Snow, too.
(9) "Black Tin Box": more of a brooding tune, with 80s drum hits.
(10) "Paddling Out": definitely a Dance track here, almost something out of Daft Punk's funky early repertoire.
    I hope you enjoy the entire stream on their MySpace here. Also, the track "Vase" over by the 'Monthly Sample Tracks'. I had a hard time choosing which song to display, so I highly recommend you do not let this be your only preview!