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Mar 03, 2016 Issue # 56 - Best of 2015 - Father John Misty and Wolf Alice By Charles Steinberg

When Miike Snow formed in 2007, the trio of producers delivered a refreshing alternative to groovy electro-pop, creating a canvas of dance tracks with splashes of colorful melodic passages that kept you interested. With iii, it has devolved into paint by numbers.

Perhaps the constraints of expectations and keeping pace with the successful style choices of others in their field, a number of whom they have worked with, has interfered with the formula that distinguished them, because iii plays like a selection of tracks fashioned after the current electro-soul artists they admire.

Miike Snow’s first two albums allowed more space for melodic articulation and raw instrumental playing, such as the marching drums peppered into Happy to You. The drums on iii have little personality and the few whimsical production moments are too fleeting.

There is some catchiness to the music, but Andrew Wyatt’s vocals discourage any notion of singing along. It may be that the primary purpose of this brand of dance-pop is to energize while lyrics become a sidecar, but the banality throughout iii detracts from any basic pleasure possible from the beats. Tales of mind games and consequent shady maneuvers of flighty romantic affairs is the kind of generic tat that induces head-shaking. Furthermore, the computerized modulation of Wyatt’s falsetto and baritone is heavy-handed and misplaced.

Previously, Miike Snow’s authentic musical tendencies produced a fresh sound that resonated with a particular audience that liked to go out and dance. Now it seems like the group is pandering to the audience they attracted and that their influences have obscured the vision that made them unique. (www.miikesnow.com)

Author rating: 3/10