Fever Ray and Niggalas Cage

Fever Ray

First off - Fever Ray. This is the self-titled debut LP from the new project of Karin Dreijer, one half of the Swedish brother-sister duo The Knife, who brought out the awesome album Silent Shout back in 2006 (shit, has it really been over two years?). This new project doesn't sound at all like a diminished version of The Knife - it has all the atmospheric synths, pitch-manipulated vocals and enigmatic lyrics ("we used to talk about dishwasher tablets") that we're familiar with. Perhaps the most prominent difference is a lack of uptempo tracks, perhaps the minimal techno loving Olof is the one responsible for those, and a slightly more monothematic, downbeat feel, occasionally reminiscent of later period Kate Bush. Not sure it quite matches Silent Shout in quality, certainly not as many stand-out tracks, but it feels like it may be a slow-burner. Comparisons with Silent Shout are bound to be unfavourable anyway, as that's one of my favourite albums of the last few years. In any case I can see Fever Ray in my top ten of 2009 and we're barely even off the starting blocks.

Niggalas Cage



The youtube embedded above is the track Be on you by Ne-Yo, featuring Niggalas Cage. I'm pointing out this tune, not because it's particularly good - Ne-Yo's Miss Independent from last year's album Year of the Gentleman is a much better example of his slicker than Jim Leighton's eyebrows brand of r'n'b - but because of two things. First-off the title and the refrain to the tune seem to be lifted from Ron Burgundy's terrible chat-up line in Anchorman, and secondly, the name of his guest vocalist, NIGGALAS CAGE, is either the apex or nadir of rapper names. If anyone can figure out how the media are going to censor that when this song is all over the Billboard Hot 100 send us your answer on the back of a postcard.