Silent Shout
Ditching the springy Europop of 2004's Deep Cuts, Sweden's the Knife here pits dark, ghostly electro backdrops against elastic vocals, which they mash through a wringer of digital manipulation. A far cry from the duo's friendly first singles, Silent Shout gorily births the Knife's mutant twin. The result is creepy enough to warrant its own genre: haunted house.
A few years ago, The Knife recorded a song called Heartbeats. It was a spangled slice of electropop, glad-sad and catchy, and a Swedish hit. But now it's 2006. Though Heartbeats is topping charts worldwide, it's not the original version on the radio in Ireland and California.
<p><strong>Rosie Swash:</strong> Swedish siblings return with music to break down to.</p>
The album foregrounds the cold-blooded calculation of its technological origin while still capturing emotions that are recognizably, powerfully human.