DANCE-FLOOR BLISS AND THE SEARCH FOR (POST-) HUMAN CONNECTION

Over the course of roughly a decade, CARIBOU, the electronic-leaning project from Canadian musician and composer Dan Snaith, has released intricate, sonically inventive records that cradle rhythm and history. On "Home," from 2020's Suddenly, he coos softly alongside a frenetic flip of Gloria Barnes' 1971 single of the same name. There, the subtle cracks and gestures in his voice manage to breathe life into the digitally-manipulated sample. Caribou's music has so far thrived on this quality — Snaith's seemingly boundless musical curiosity and his ability to crystalize big ideas into euphoric moments of dance-floor bliss. It's why his choice to use artificial intelligence on his vocals for his latest album, Honey, feels like a misstep. Here, Snaith's voice is transformed in character and identity, at times creating revelatory moments, like on "Come Find Me," where he's reimagined as a treacly-toned young woman, though in small enough doses for it to work. Elsewhere, like on the rap-adjacent "Campfire," where Snaith renders himself as the sort of rapper you might hear on a Caribou track (think Definitive Jux vibes), the concept breaks down.

- By Jeff Ihaza

Where Caribou's latest found him using AI to effectively generate musicians to sing on his tracks, FRED AGAIN, the British electronic musician who's quietly taken the world by storm, packing arenas and stadiums across the globe, has no shortage of real-life musicians to work with. His latest, ten days, features everyone from Anderson .Paak to Skrillex, and at times feels more like a compilation than a straightforward album. As a producer, Fred Again continues to seek the grand, emotive highs of peak-time dance tracks — though, here, he seems equally focused on offering his collaborators room to shine. On "ten," the risingBritish artist Jim Legxacy offers vocals that glisten through the track's brooding, low-fi two-step. Still, the number of guests on