Caribou – Come Find Me

Album : Honey

Label: Merge Records
© 2024 Merge Records

Dan Snaith (a.k.a. Caribou) is a man whose fingers are perpetually in multiple musical pies, but the success of his Daphni alias on the club circuit in recent years has been the cause of a somewhat reduced output on the Caribou project. Bar the odd single, 2021’s “You Can Do It,” for example, there has been little substantive material to speak of since the release of Suddenly in 2020. That was until the first seeds of this album were teased in 2023; demo versions of the title track “Honey” notably aired during his performance at Glastonbury’s Arcadia stage as well as various other festivals that summer. The buzz around this new material became tangible with the release of three more singles: “Broke My Heart,” “Volume,” and “Come Find Me.” The common thread between them? “To bring you joy,” according to Snaith.

And the full record certainly does this. Unlike Suddenly, where Snaith’s songwriting—a form of self-therapy for him in the wake of family troubles—entailed stripped-back, at-times-melancholic results, any emotional vulnerability on Honey seems to manifest via a dance-despite-all approach to the music. This mentality comes to the fore on “Broke My Heart,” which doesn’t so much pull on the proverbial strings as it does pluck them, pizzicato chords bouncing atop a garage beat as a pitched-up vocal (Snaith’s voice, believe it or not) vents post-break up grievances.

The carefree bliss of “Over Now” has a similar energy about it: it’s the kind of ’80s-inspired, rose-tinted elation you might get from watching Ferris Bueller dancing on top of a parade float (or dogs catching frisbees—but Caribou has already explored that idea). Also evident is the palette of dance music influences, which stretches far and wide across the album: cosmic disco flavours shine through on “Climbing”; “August 20/24,” with its vocoder and groove, could be interpreted as an ode to Daft Punk; the wobbling sine bass on “Honey” is a clear nod to bassline and U.K. bass music more generally.

Caribou fans will be pleased with this release, which combines the dancefloor brilliance of Snaith’s Daphni work with the accomplished songwriting and poppier tendencies that have come to be synonymous with this alias. But perhaps most importantly, it is joyful music—hard not to find pleasure in that.

© Finn Kverndal/Qobuz