Honey - Caribou: Review

Review by Lavender:

Caribou is the biggest and most acclaimed musical project of Canadian producer and vocalist Dan Snaith. I've enjoyed multiple projects in the Caribou back catalog including 2010's Swim and the previous record Suddenly in 2020. I've also enjoyed other moments like his side project Daphni's 2019 Sizzling EP, even though I wasn't a fan of the album that followed it. Snaith can be hit or miss, but his potential is high. That informs this record, which features some awe-inspiring highs side-by-side with some of his most confusing tracks ever. 

The album gets off to a decent start with three of its 4 singles popping up right away. Lead single and title track "Honey' is the best of the bunch by far and one of my favorite Caribou songs in a long time. I love the glitchy textured splashes during its build-up and the extraordinarily satisfying conclusion it eventually reaches. "Broke My Heart" opens the album and while it didn't blow me away as a single I've come around to the vocal style and the refrains themselves as they've become buried into my brain. Finally there's "Volume" which is a pretty fun cut that delivers an enticing push and pull. Both how the instrumental bounces between channels and the dueling source of vocal samples work together and spin around each other really well in a way that reminds me of DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ songs. 

Additionally there are some highlights among the deep cuts. "Over Now" is a really interesting song for Caribou with another instrumental whose cloudy mix and glistening away of sparkly synths reminds me of DJ Sabrina. The song also has a stronger narrative focus than really anything else here focusing on a relationship that's over so the other person involved can't hurt you anymore. The track also sparks yet another strong run on the record with the three songs that follow. 

"Climbing" thrusts the record right back into its dancier stylings with timely claps and some killer synth noodling in the second half. It progresses in this dizzying dynamic way that I love. Closer "Got To Change" is a solid finale to the record that dishes out a dramatic rise with blown-out glistening synths walls and spattering high-hats.  In between the two, "Only You" is probably the song here that most resembles vintage Caribou from the pitched-up vocals to the gentle pulsating beat it seems like a track he could have dropped 15 years ago. That perception only slightly breaks when the song erupts into bright and slightly garish walls of synths around a just okay chorus. 

And that just okay chorus really is a leaping-off point for talking about the rest of the album. Too often on this record there just doesn't seem like much at all to grab on to. That's the case with "Come Find Me" which has an incredibly fun music video, but none of the elements of the actual song itself really do much for me. Moments like "Do Without You" and "Dear Life" feature surprisingly monotonous repetition and nothing on the instrumental side to really draw me in all that much. 

But the very worst and most confusing song here is definitely "Campfire." It's initially a ballad that interpolates the vocals from "Broke My Heart" before eventually breaking out into a full-on rap verse performed by Dan himself. It's a pretty damn strange change of pace for the record and a song that despite its outside-the-box approach just feels completely inexplicable to me. 

Honey may be better than the Daphni record that preceded it, but only marginally. I'll get it out of the way and say that I flat-out love the title track, in fact, I think it's one of my favorite dance songs of the year by anyone not named Jamie xx. But the rest of these tracks, despite occasional highlights never come anywhere close to reaching that mark. Combine that with deep cuts that range from boring to outright difficult to listen to and you've got a record that fell short of my expectations. 5.5/10

For more dance check out my review of Jamie xx's In Waves