Review: Four Tet – There Is Love in You

January 27, 2010 in Album Reviews

Fourt Tet’s latest album, There Is Love in You, is an unpredictable electronic album, probably unlike any other dance music you have ever heard. This is an album without the limitations of steady, repetitive beats found in typical dance music but one that you must actually feel the music to make you move. The album was made for and by dancers, as Keiran Hebden created these songs by playing them for London club goers and adjusting them judging by their responses until they were perfect. The results are pretty stunning.

The album opens up with “Angel Echoes”; an intro of cymbals and a clipped, looping female voice similar in style to POGO’s “Alice” leading things off. “Love Cry”, the album’s first single, has an eerie ambient feel until a sample sounding similar to Kraftwerk’s Computer World enters and drums take over. A woman’s soft vocals and some looped bits are layered over one another, creating a beautifully textured mix. Both “This Unfolds” and “She Just Likes to Fight” let Hebden’s post-rock side (from his other project, Fridge) shine through, and are later accented with steadily growing touches of electronic twinkle. There are wonderful, unexpected surprises throughout the album including some familiar Nintendo beats, R2-D2 bleeps, and a fantasy-laden harp (reminiscent of Rounds’ “My Angel Rocks Back and Forth”). Although the songs are a pleasure to listen to, in order for one to truly enjoy them you must listen with great care, otherwise the intricacies will be missed.

Compared to previous work, there is a much stronger ambient feel, which is particularly felt in “Reversing”. There are many more vocal samples on the album, which seemed to have replaced the Oriental and Middle-Eastern sounds present on both Rounds and Dialogue. The vocal samples, with their mysterious, distorted messages, create a more fantastic and surreal feel that let the imagination take over. Four Tet’s most recent work is quite possibly his most accessible album, and at the same time the most mature, concise and organized. His recent collaborations with fellow schoolmate Burial seems to have really helped him, as he has overcome the difficulty of molding an album full of various emotions and ranging styles into one smooth story. – Amelia Robitaille

Key Tracks: “She Just Likes to Fight”, “Love Cry”, “Circling”