Our Love’s minimalist lyrics have emotional effect

Canadian composer and musician, Daniel Victor Snaith released his latest album, Our Love, under the stage name Caribou this past October. Snaith also has a musical project under his Daphni moniker, but while Daphni’s music is more fast-paced, club-suitable electronic, Caribou’s music is dreamy, relaxed, and surprisingly poignant.

Snaith has released four albums as Caribou: The Milk of Human Kindness (2005), Andorra (2007), Swim (2010) and Our Love (2014). Two additional albums were previously released under Snaith’s original stage name, Manitoba, but this name had to be changed due to a potential lawsuit filed by a member of The Dictators, who used the same name. Currently, Snaith performs live with band members Ryan Smith, Brad Weber and John Schmersal.

Not only does Snaith have a good ear for sounds, but he is also a techie, holding a Ph.D. in mathematics. His acute ability to produce precise, yet mesmerizing harmonies is likely an amalgamation of these two qualities.

Compared to his other albums, Our Love may sound more minimalistic and smooth. The instrumentation is more subdued compared to The Milk of Human Kindness, which sounds more experimental through its synthesis of eclectic, somewhat mismatched sounds. It also distances itself from the sound of Andorra, which won the 2008 Polaris Music Prize and has a psychedelic pop sound. Our Love is more similar to the album Swim, which won the 2011 Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year. Both albums are easy to dance to, but while Swim is more energetic with fast paced tracks like “Odessa” and “Hannibal,” Snaith’s most recent album is moodier.

The lyrics of most of this most recent album’s tracks are very simplistic and repetitive. The song “Our Love” repeats lyrics “Our love / our love / our love” for the majority of the five minutes and thirty seconds. But this does not mean the track becomes redundant or boring. The instrumentation evolves slowly, cooing and caressing the listener into a sort of trance. The result of this technique is tender and sensual tracks that compile into a truly atmospheric listening experience.

Not only is the album atmospheric, but it’s also sentimental. In an interview with Stereogum, Snaith explained his emotional connection to the recent album.

“It’s definitely very much an album made by a thirty-something person. It’s about this complexity and density and seems to kind of characterize my life and the relationships in my life in the moment. But also I hope it’s something that’s universal in some way. Because those things really aren’t things that are specific to that age. It is personal to me, but I feel like everybody encounters those things,” Snaith said.

It is likely that Snaith’s recent album reflects his experiences as a recent father who has been married for 13 years.

When speaking specifically about his track “Can’t Do Without You,” Snaith describes what influenced him to produce it.

“[It is] kind of the dynamic between myself and my daughter — how reliant and dependent she is on me,” Snaith said. “It’s a euphoric song, but there’s also a kind of melancholy note in the sentiment... it’s almost dysfunctional. This line is repeated over and over again about obsession and dependency.”

“I see people with relationships that have lasted longer than a few years, they become dependent on each other. One thing I reflect on a lot is people in my parents’ generation, they become so knotted to one another. Not always in a fairytale love way, but the context and texture of your lives become knotted together in a way that’s both functional and dysfunctional. It’s like you just kind of get the roots of two trees knotted together,” Snaith said.

Thus, while the lyrics on the album may seem stark, it could be that less says more in this case. Rather than cluttering tracks with what could become convoluted messages, Snaith resorts to simplicity, allowing him to dive more deeply into an affective state of mind.

Many of the songs included in the album revolve around the topic of fractured love. In the track “Silver,” Snaith sings, “I wish I’d never met you/It doesn’t mean I can’t get over you/What you gonna do without me tonight? Girl, you know what you do to me?” In “Your Love Will Set You Free,” the vocalist coos, “How hard it has been since I left you/You’re my sweet thing/ The only thing I want is to caress you/In my dreams dear/You are here beside me in my bedroom/All night dear/Hold each other like I never met you.”

In “Back Home,” further hopelessness is evoked with lyrics like “How can we fix our love? Now that we know it’s broken/I can only take so much/ Your kiss and your touch are both like poison.”

These are only a few examples of the heartbreak explored in the minimalistic yet emotionally heavy lyrics. Due to the instrumentation with which the lyrics are paired and the smooth quality of the vocals, the songs never become overdramatic and are instead smooth and unaffected.

Caribou is currently touring abroad in Europe but will be returning to the U.S. in early November. On Nov. 15, he will be performing at the Black Cat venue in Washington, D.C.