Ritual Union
Little Dragon
Swedish electro-pop group Little Dragon have produced two or three outstanding songs on Ritual Union that are unfortunately surrounded by a slew of unremarkable tracks. That might sound needlessly harsh, but it comes from the frustration of watching a band too often take the well-trodden path to predictably standard fare results when, on the few instances where they do go off track, they produce great work.

Let’s focus on the good. The three tracks I’m referring to are “When I Go Out,” “Crystalfilm,” and “Seconds.” On the first, Yukimi Nagano covers her usually sultry voice in exposed auto-tune while the band sparsely lays synths over a simple, syncopated mix of percussion. On an album full of hooks, “When I Go Out” sticks out for barely having a melody, but it’s also where the band sounds most inventive.

What makes these songs work, however, isn’t any overt evasion of accessibility; “Seconds,” the best of the three, has the album’s best hook on its chorus. The difference comes from an embrace of minimalism. No track on the album is particularly full sounding, but it’s on these three that the band let the songs breathe best. Particularly on “Seconds,” Little Dragon resist filling in all the open spaces in the music. Nagano’s vocals are understated, fading away a bit at the end of each line even though they are the song’s centrepiece.

The rest of the album has it moments. “Ritual Union” and “Shuffle a Dream” are reasonably good pop songs. There’s a cowbell solo at the end of “Brush the Heat.” That put a smile on my face. But it’s “Seconds” I keep going back to. Restraint works because, if you hide yourself a little, the listener will keep trying to get a better look, even if they know they’ll never get the full view.