Does she look like an ennui victim to you?
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[5.62]
Anthony Easton: Elegant beauty and ennui laden boredom feed off each other with such regularity that working the difference has become a cottage industry.
[4]
Hazel Robinson: I must be in a good mood or something; this is a hipster build with no payoff and a terrible (seriously) keyboard solo but there’s something so enormously lovely about it, overall, despite her rubbish voice and the fact the chug is never going to deliver, that it’s making me extremely happy. Maybe I’m just totally fatigued by songs that build into an inept dubstep breakdown (although if Chase & Status remixed this I’m not saying that that would be irrelevant to my interests) but something about the fact this ends at the same speed it begins and just washes along pleasantly in between is instilling a sense of wellbeing in me.
[7]
Jonathan Bogart: “Ritual Union” was the rare midtempo electro indiepop song that captured my fancy; “Sunshine” is either too midtempo, too indie, not electro, or not pop enough.
[5]
Will Adams: Lite-disco that sounds so constricted that the only proper way to dance to it is with your arms firm at your side and ever so slightly bending your knees in time with the beat. Good for me, because that’s pretty close to how I dance normally. If only I had a partner, I could dance to this until the sunrise synth solo at the end aligned with reality.
[7]
Patrick St. Michel: I hate how every adjective that comes to mind while listening to this song – smooth, easy-going, summery, glistening – double as the sort of descriptions Absolut vodka want to come out of this brand-building exercise between Swedish entities. In order to not give some summer punch drink any indirect pub, let’s try this line – like Phoenix’s early, laziest moments except blessed with a better singer.
[6]
Alfred Soto: I dig how her timbre enables to harmonize alongside that thumping bass. There’s a lot going on here, in fact: sinister background vocals, little industrial synth parts. Too low key though.
[6]
Ramzi Awn: Pulsing blips and routine vocals make for an innocuous track that bubbles but doesn’t burst. The Swedes just don’t stop, do they? Good enough for background music at H&M.
[4]
Iain Mew: “Ritual Union” was my song of 2011 and then some. The lack of the same magic of melody and imagery, coupled with the failure to relate in the same way, means that nothing else they’ve ever released comes close to touching it. As ever this has gentle and ear-pleasing beats with a twist of instrumental weirdness, plus Yukimi Nagano’s impassioned ambiguity, but the effect in comparison is like monochrome versus vivid colour.
[6]