#1 Fever Ray: Radical Romantics (Greatest Album of 2023)

This is for our careers

Putting my kid in high school

Even it Out… sort of

All year I adored the opening lines from ‘Radical Romantics’ fifth track. I loved the angry, vicious attack of the commodified work of an artist. How the work is no longer about inspiration or true artistic integrity, but just a career. Under capitalism it has become just another desperate attempt to ensure safety, housing, food and education for your family. And what does such a system force you to do with your artistic inclinations? Or maybe the social safety nets?? “And then we cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut”. Comrade Karin Dreijer! Give those capitalist pigdogs what they deserve!

There’s no room for you
And we know where you live
One day we might come after you
Taking back what’s ours

Workers of the World unite!!

Then while researching this list I happened to look at the actual lyrics. Yeah, turns out Dreijer isn’t compelling the workers of the world to throw off their chains. Those first two lines are actually “This is for Zacharias/Who bullied my kid in high school”, and they’re actually about… Well, pretty self-explanatory. A revenge fantasy about Dreijer first trying their best to “do things methodically/M-m-m-methodically” and deal with the school’s proper systems, but eventually giving up and… Well, you know: “Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut/Cut, cut, cut, cut…” etc.

Finding this out made me love their spectacular third record more, and might have sealed its album of the year status.

It was always going to be Fever Ray though. Since it was released in March ‘Radical Romantics’ has towered over every other 2023 release, and only a late re-consideration for SZA presented any sort of potential challenger. It’s a musically expansive, sonically abrasive and inventively constructed (including tracks produced by Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross and the first tracks they’ve done with their brother and Knife partner Olof in eight years) work of stunning cohesion that marks Karin Dreijer out as one of the premier musical artists of the 21st century, were that at all in any doubt.

And it is horny as fuck, ma dudes. The overall theme of the album is analysing the duties of love and what it compels you to do (such as the familial love that moves you to slash up the teenager who’s bullying your son), but that obviously includes a lot of thirst. Their last album, ‘Plunge‘, was horny as fuck as well, of course, but the lyrics on that album sometimes veered a little too close to ‘The Age of Pleasure’s “I’m queer and I love pussy, and that in itself is worthy of celebration” liberal identity love-in”. Here though, Dreijer deep dives into the anxieties and the issues with dating when you’re a queer in your 40s. Grindr then, is it?? Fuck it, I don’t know! “We don’t come with a manual/Eating out like cannibal”. They’re talking about eating fanny.

Looking for person
With a special kind of smile
Teeth like razors
Fingers like spice
Looking for a ghost
In the midst of life
Asking for a friend
Who’s kind of shy

Looking for a Ghost

(*far, far, far, far, far better than ‘The Age of Pleasure’ though, largely because the songs were absolute bangers. Plus Janelle didn’t have a music video which ended with them being pissed on. I demand that for album number five, please)

‘Radical Romantics’ doesn’t just celebrate Karin Dreijer’s identity, it presents it and analyses it. It outlines perspectives and troubles. Tracks like What They Call Us understand and outline the importance of solidarity (“Can I just hold you for a minute?/Some things just ain’t easy to repair/The person who came here was broken/Can you fix it? Can you care?”) without ever calling for segregation or a hierarchy of individual experiences. It’s an ode to both hedonism and rebellion, while never forgetting how fun this revolution is going to be.

Most importantly, it’s banger after banger after banger. The production is immaculate, every song smacks you in the face with its pulsating quim of quivering pop artfulness. Never before has Dreijer done an album that’s so packed with wall to wall quality. ‘Radical Romantics’ is funnier, more expansive, more euphoric than anything Dreijer has done before. It’s their best solo album. It might be the best record they’ve ever been a part of. Something about it feels like a finale. After the hat trick of superlative solo albums Dreijer’s brother’s involvement might be the soft launch of that long awaited Knife reunion. It feels like Fever Ray have reached a plateau here, and it’s difficult to see them improving their sound any further after this without some radical change (and for an artist that often makes radical changes already, it’s difficult to imagine how radical that would have to be. TikTokcore? Bronx drill?). Unfortunately, they’ve given that historic band quite a bit to live up to, as Karin Dreijer is currently making the best music they’ve ever produced, and ‘Radical Romantics’ is a near impossible act to follow.

2017 No.6, 2009 No.3 (Fever Ray), 2013 No.?? (The Knife)

Yeah, that’s right, I ranked the last Knife album as ‘#??’, wanna fight about it? Anyway, it’s taken them a while, but now Fever Ray is officially:

Metacritic: 82

Legit Bosses: 3

And the 2023 albums list is done! Fever Ray gets added to the wall, the 14th artist to win the most prestigious award in music. And that means I can have a bit of time off now! The Legit Boss list of the year’s best songs will probably arrive very early January, and I’ve ended up with five new additions to the ongoing Gold Star Artist list, so that will have to be sorted out at some point. But thanks for reading, I seriously love every single one of you, and if you didn’t rad this blog then I’d…

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Who am I kidding? I’d still write this piece of shit even if I stopped reading. I have a problem.

Merry Christmas!