Manitoba’s 2003 breakthrough album, Up in Flames, was the musical equivalent of an overstuffed toy box; blissed-out paeans to the gods of ‘60s psych-pop and modern electronica, and more ideas than most artists crank out in an entire career spill from every side. One name change and two records later, we have Caribou’s Andorra, an album that trades in the nearly unbridled experimentation of Up in Flames for a more approachable—and ultimately less exciting—sonic palette.
For fans of the classic pop song structure, Andorra is the best installment of Caribou/Manitoba mastermind Dan Snaith’s canon. Most songs, such as the Zombies-ripping “Sandy,” stay true to the typical verse-chorus formula and deviate only for the requisite acid-guitar freak-out. Snaith’s melodies sound more confident than ever, and songs like “Melody Day” and “Desiree” ride high on his front-and-center vocal hooks.
This added focus on Snaith’s voice, however, draws attention to his traditional weakness: lyrics. The proud owner of a mathematics Ph.D., Snaith makes music for the thinking man rather than the feeling man, and his observation on the topic of love on “She’s the One” and “Desiree,” are simple at best and bland at worst. It’s perplexing why he tries to force the issue; his best pre-Andorra tracks (“Jacknuggeted,” “Crayon”) let the instruments do virtually all of the talking.
Andorra will also disappoint fans who relished the straight-outta-left-field unpredictability of Up in Flames. Unless you’re tripping on the kind of “homemade remedies” Snaith grows in his backyard, you’ll know exactly when the chorus is coming. Still, it’s hard to truly dislike an album with hooks this great. You might not be playing it 10 years from now, but today, while it’s still summer, you could be doing worse than kicking back to the sweet sounds of Andorra.
