Korallreven
Second Comin’
CASCINE
8/10
Korallreven’s warm-hearted sophomore album (appropriately titled Second Comin’) adds a bounce to the ocean breeze melodies of the duo’s soft-focus debut, An Album by Korallreven, evoking both the vocal harmonies of countrymates The Tough Alliance and hazy atmospherics of Air France. But there’s a melancholy side to Marcus Joons and Daniel Tjäder’s bucolic beats that doesn’t read as mere escapism. Second Comin’s production straddles the line between summer bliss and autumnal melancholy, cloaking even the sunniest of melodies in a cloud of reverb. Sure, there’s a tug towards the dance floor, particularly on the 808-heavy single “Death Is Not for Us” and Cornelius-assisted, tropicalia-infused track “Try Anything Once.” But the pair’s brightest moments are also the most melancholic, particularly when it involves album guests. I Break Horses’ Maria Lindén stops by for chat-based track “Mantras” and the expansive, eight-minute closer “Ki,” her sweet soprano pulled along by Korallreven’s sonic tide. Listen closely—it’s hard not to get swept away.
