There are times when the dance floor can be the best place on earth. Getting lost in the music and being surrounded by good friends – friends who believe in equality when it comes to rounds of drink, most importantly – is among one of the best things to do with your Saturday. If we are moths with an eclectic but passionate taste in music, Caribou’s music is the blinding flame.
Dan Snaith was initially known as Manitoba, but switched names to Caribou and then later added the name Daphni as a side project. Under these monikers, the London-based Canadian musician delves into many shades of electronic music and he kindly tends to our different needs with various BPMs and dance breaks.
Snaith opens up on this record, from the ego-boosting repetition of 'Can't Do Without You' <em> </em>to the sentiment of 'Our Love'
2014 was a very good year to fall under the spell of Snaith. As Caribou, he released his seventh album, Our Love, and with that bundle of joy came multiple tracks that made their way from our headphones to the booming speakers of basement clubs and late-night parties. It's music made for sharing. He recorded Our Love just as he and his wife welcomed their daughter into the world; the new pace of life meant his work process involved more interactions with people, adding a particularly poignant touch to the lyrics, as simple as they are.
“But even now a big reason why the record has the most personal content lyrically is that I used to work in the mode where I’d disappear for up to 18 hours a day. I’d come out quickly to eat something and then go back in again. And I’d be so immersed in that world, where I’d just disappear down the wormhole,” he said in a 2014 with Noisey. “Now it’s more like go to the park, then she has a nap and I have the baby monitor next to me, she wakes up and I go spend some time with her, then my wife looks after her and I come back downstairs. So my life is so much more mixed up with her life, but also all of my friends and family because people are in similar situations.”
Our Love is a celebration of love of every size and shape. Even the unrequited ones get a look in, on Silver, and the all-consuming neurosis of regret is handled beautifully on All I Ever Need. Snaith opens up on this record, from the ego-boosting repetition of Can't Do Without You to the sentiment of Our Love, a song that builds up to a house break fully equipped with tiny laser sounds. By pouring his heart into the music, he assists us in expressing ourselves in the wee hours in the only way we can; by throwing our arms around our friends and really emphasising that Can't Do Without You is actually about them.
Caribou plays the Big Top at Galway International Arts Festival on July 28th
