Fever Ray, 'Fever Ray'

The buzz: Swedish electro-eccentrics the Knife made their international breakthrough in 2006; “Silent Shout,” the brother-sister duo’s third album, won six Grammys in their homeland while collecting critical raves Stateside (including Pitchfork’s Album of the Year). After a brief pause for childbirth, Karin Dreijer Andersson felt inspired to write on her own LP; eight months later, she emerged from artistic seclusion with the songs for “Fever Ray.”

The verdict: Taking her time paid off in a big way. Every nuance of “Fever Ray”—and there are many—feels carefully crafted and considered. Andersson sets the tone upfront with the ominous opener “If I Had a Heart” and it never relents over the course of 10 tracks. Fever Ray and the Knife plainly bear some of the same genes; one carryover is the androgyny rendered by Andersson’s voice manipulation, sometimes creating a compelling self-duet. There’s nothing for the dance floor this time around, though. “Fever Ray” is an immersive record for headphones and night drives, a stunning shift from one of electronic music’s most forward-thinking artists.

Did you know? Up next for the Knife: an experimental opera to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.”