Album Review

Rediscovering great music: The Knife's 'Silent Shout' (2006)

If 'Black Mirror' was a dark, Euro-pop album, The Knife's 'Silent Shout' would be it

14 October 2018 - 00:00 By pearl boshomane tsotetsi

The Knife's first two albums - 2001's The Knife and 2003's Deep Cuts were solid, but it is their third album, 2006's Silent Shout, that is their quintessential record.
The Swedish brother-sister duo (Karin Dreijer and Olof Dreijer) makes music which is intriguing, strange, experimental, a little dark and a little creepy - and they're on top form here.
Silent Shout has all these ingredients, but it's also very melodic and it's very much pop music. You can dance to a lot of the songs, though the lyrics can feel like a punch to the gut because they're rather dark.
One theme explored often is that of dangerous men and women's fear of them ("nothing is more fatal than angry man" from Neverland; "I've got mace, pepper-spray, and some shoes that run faster than a rapist rapes"on Na Na Na; an abusive and misogynistic man bragging about his behaviour and male privilege on One Hit). Other topics explored include religion, loneliness and death.
WATCH | The music video for Like A Pen from The Knife's album Silent Shout..

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