release date: Apr. 8, 2013
format: digital (2 cd)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: The Knife
label: Rabid Records - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: Disc 1) 1. "A Tooth for an Eye" - 2. "Full of Fire" (4 / 5) - 4. "Without You My Life Would Be Boring" - - Disc 2) 1. "Raging Lung" - 2. "Networking"
4th and proclaimed final studio album by The Knife released as stylised The Kniφe is issued as a double cd or a triple vinyl album. The duo hasn't released new material as often as most artists do, and four studio albums in 12 years may not sound as much but looking at the stylistic changes and stages they have gone through, document a considerable journey. This is no near Silent Shout or any other previous album by The Knife. Actually, it probably comes closest to their collaboration album from 2010 by being experimental and electronic. It's not classical opera though, but close to what one might categorise as modern or neo-classical, which is a rather broad term. Again, much like Tomorrow, in a Year (2010) this is more like an 'electronic' tapestry but really not without thought. The texts are about sexual behaviour, the political right, and human conditions. The title is apparently taken from the Michel Foucault quote: “The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).” I cannot quite decide if I enjoy the music greatly or just hardly. Too often I end up putting one of their former albums on, which basically says that I don't, but somehow I still feel that I ought to because of something, and not just the subject matter of the lyrics, but elements within the music that stirs my attention.
[ allmusic.com, The Independent 4 / 5, Rolling Stone, NME 3,5 / 5, The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]
=> needledrop review [ 9 / 10 ]
