Dan Snaith, the man currently known as Caribou and formerly known as Manitoba, has concocted an elegant mix of whispy pop, acoustic beauty, and psychedelia for his newest record, Andorra. With elaborate, flush melodies dripping from every pore of his person, Snaith has earned himself a place in the upper echelon of modern songwriters and arrangers with its release.
The album opens with “Melody Day,” an intricate, layered piece utilizing mounds of instrumentation. This song embodies the new direction Snaith has taken since his 2005 album, The Milk of Human Kindness.
Jeremy Greenspan of indie electronic group Junior Boys offers vocals and songwriting credits to “She’s the One,” a successful throwback to early ‘60s pop laments. Other songs like “Desiree,” which starts off slowly with Snaith barely singing before it builds into a multi-colored aural palate, should help him shed the “electronica” label that has followed him since his Manitoba days.
With great skill and deference, Caribou‘s Andorra lays bare the skeletal remains of psychedelia’s oft-mythologized history.