- A stunning return from Karin Dreijer.
- The new single from Fever Ray feels anxious, backed into a corner, defiant. "Did you hear what they call us," Karin Dreijer snarls on the chorus, "Did you hear what they said?" Of course, we don't know who called what anything, but the rest of the lyrics are eerie and evocative, over an increasingly tense beat that features the decaying keyboard sounds that made The Knife famous. The track quivers as if it's so nervous that can't hold a single note for longer than a millisecond, every sound and tone in flux. "I've got a plan that's flexible / Just don't stop anywhere," Dreijer sings with a chill in their voice, and it adds a desperate urgency, like a Swedish experimental pop version of "Fast Car."
The details that are left unsaid are captivating—"Did you see the light this morning / Sometimes there's this extra air" sends chills up my spine—but "What They Call Us" is otherwise built perfectly. Its economy of arrangement looks back to the Silent Shout days (Dreijer's brother and former Knife partner Olof co-wrote and produced the track) with the same unnerving vocal manipulation and layering that made that album so unforgettable, pitched up and down at the same time. "What They Call Us" ends with a nagging feeling, unfinished business, and it begs reflection on what the lyrics mean: is it apocalyptic sci-fi, or is it a social commentary on the increasing demonization of queer, and especially trans people, around the world? Like Dreijer's most compelling work, it feels both hard to parse and universal. But their question lingers: "Can you fix it / Can you care?"