Review: Miike Snow - Miike Snow

Five years ago, someone from the future told me that I would eventually sit in front of my computer and start to gush over a band that contains the songwriters for Britney Spears' "Toxic." I simply scoffed and proceeded to write him off for being catastrophically insane. Not to knock Britney or the song, but a suggestion like that just doesn't seem like something I'd like--for starters--or even real. Then, Miike Snow rolls up on the scene with their self-titled debut to fulfill this crazy prophecy; indeed they are the fabled band that is two-thirds Bloodshy & Avant that have made an album that I simply can't stop listening to and am now--for lack of a better word--'gushing' over.

To keep things in perspective though, I almost avoided this album entirely. To be honest, when I first heard the lead single, "Animal," I wasn't too impressed. It seemed like a perfectly competent pop song, but something about it just didn't click with me until--seemingly at random--I couldn't get the bloody thing out of my head. Pondering this mystery, I consulted a colleague of mine, and he made me aware of the fact that "Animal" is best described as a latent virus of a song. Whereas MGMT songs lose their initial appeal because of shallow songwriting and ill-conceived synth work, "Animal" will grow on you and not stop until you are singing "I change shapes just to hide in this place / But I'm still, I'm still an animal / Nobody knows it but me / When I slip, when I slip I'm still an animal" all the live-long day.

Once this happened to me, I couldn't help but give the whole album a listen, and it's a good thing I did. First of all, it's a great debut for the Swedish trio, and secondly, I could have upset the cosmic balance had I not fulfilled that nonsensical prophecy. Every song on the album presents some different, well-executed pop arrangement that keeps the album interesting while also showing the Miike Snow's near-limitless potential.

That may sound like a bit of an exaggeration, and maybe it is, but here's just some things you may or may not realize you are encountering on this album: the stylistic combination of Sufjan Stevens and Animal Collective in "Burial," the whimpers of The Fray as they realize that "Sylvia" is miles above anything they could ever hope to do, and the re-imagining of summery, Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz ditties with "Song for No One." And those are just the next three songs following "Animal." The rest of the album does similarly awesome things.

Considering I was so skeptical at first, I was trying to unravel why what I would usually think of as a ridiculous outfit for a band would be so dang enjoyable, but then I had a revelation. Having an indie-pop group that contains experienced producers that have also been writing songs for Kylie Minogue, Madonna, and the aforementioned Britney Spears for years would actually be fantastic. It's a simple way to take proven creative talent and separate if from the mentality that some image or style needs to be maintained in order to create a 'best selling' package that is easily digestible for the lowest common denominator of music fans.

From here, I'd usually continue talking about each song on a track by track basis, but I don't want this review that obviously doesn't have anything bad to say about Miike Snow to get in your way of going out and buying it.