Honey

by 
AlbumOct 04 / 202412 songs, 40m 35s96%
House
Popular

More than 20 years into his career, Dan Snaith continues to shape-shift as an artist. His sixth proper album as Caribou finds the 46-year-old electronic pop polymath diving headlong into big-room dance sounds, more so than ever before: French-touch-indebted synths, city-flattening wub-wub basslines, and the type of clipped-vocal UK garage melodies that pop artists like PinkPantheress have favored as of late. Snaith is taking clear inspiration from his acclaimed full-length under his dance-floor-focused Daphni moniker, 2022’s *Cherry*, as well as the recent stadium-pleasing gestures from left-of-center contemporaries Jamie xx and Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden. The result is the sound of an artist newly invigorated and truly having fun with the music they’re making. *Honey* isn’t the first time that Snaith has turned his attention towards body-moving music. 2010’s *Swim* fused techno’s intensity with his career-long penchant for all things psychedelic and heady, while *Our Love* from 2014 found Snaith rubbing elbows with the melodic bass music explosion that marked much of early-2010s electronic music, all the while applying his intimate and resolutely human songwriting point of view. If those albums felt like a combination of his established tendencies with dance music, then *Honey* feels like a complete breakthrough into pure pop territory. The warm synth waves of “Come Find Me” sound lovingly ripped from Daft Punk’s astral playbook, while Snaith’s soft-focus vocals on “Over Now” are centered in the midst of a spangly disco beat that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dua Lipa record. Of course, this is a Caribou record, so he has plenty of dazzling and trippy tricks up his sleeve regardless; bear witness to the perpetually ascendant “Dear Life,” which chops up vocal samples in a flurry of glistening synth trickles, or the endless melodic ziggurats of “Climbing,” which recall Nordic space-disco greats like Todd Terje and Hans-Peter Lindstrøm. Every time Snaith seems like he might be touching terra firma, he seemingly blasts off thousands of miles into the stratosphere instead—a dazzling bait-and-switch that makes *Honey* endlessly replayable, as well as one of his most pure and potent works to date.

306

7.8 / 10

Dan Snaith’s new album scales his distinctive fidgety production style into huge, satisfying dancefloor heaters—and wait till you find out who’s singing them.

With such a joyous energy, it’s easy to get lost in its layers.

Honey's combination of club beats and AI-boosted vocals is technically dazzling, but lacking in depth.

8 / 10

Your daily dose of the best music, film and comedy news, reviews, streams, concert listings, interviews and other exclusives on Exclaim!

8 / 10

Few artists have had as much consistent success as Caribou within live electronic music. Blending electronic, pop, psychedelia and indie sounds, Dan

6.0 / 10

Honey by Caribou album review by Michael G. Barilleaux for Northern Transmissions. The artist/producer's new LP drops on October 4th

Evidently running out of ideas, the Canadian musician has used AI to alter his voice into rappers and singers – a dismally insular style of working that produces little of note

Album Reviews: Caribou - Honey

72 %

Album New Music review by Joe Muggs

7 / 10