Miike Snow Gets Affably Oddball For "Genghis Khan"

When you think Swedish music your thoughts may run to a few different places. Let's not leave out Europe, whose anthem "The Final Countdown" falls into either love it or hate it. In this era it hasn't aged well but nothing wrong with guilty pleasure, right? Of course ABBA, master of the well written pop nugget can't be forgotten. This foursome owned the 1970s. Conversely you can dismiss "Barbie Girl" from Aqua. I get why people want to throw this '90s act under a bus. Then you have The Cardigans whose "Lovefool" was inescapable in 1996. What all this chat leads up to is we have another entry in the Swedish corniness circus. Enter Miike Snow, an indie pop act doing historical namedropping with "Genghis Khan". The history lesson receives an infectious chorus backup that is going to drive you nuts with how catchy it really is. The video is bound to leave you with one of the widest smiles you'll ever know in your lifetime. Andrew Wyatt doesn't rank GQ mention but for sure he makes the video pop, particularly with his spot on hilarious dance routines. It's nice when some outfit in the music stratosphere shakes things up so you're not fed a steady diet of interchangeable hit flavors of the month. The synthesizers give "Genghis Khan" its cold heart and sinister vibe. Synths have this history of getting the prickly heats going on the back of your neck. It definitely doesn't hurt that the song's staying power comes from a wicked drum through line that makes you follow the psychotic backdrop to see what lines are going to be colored in next. The piano chords stand at attention at D and then leap up a few notches which I like because that demonstrates Miike Snow uses all of the canvas they paint on, not just one fraction. Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, better known as Bloodshy & Avant know exactly where to load up on dark foreboding synths. That's why it's useful to have Andrew in the background tamping up the humor quotient. Too silly for its own good perhaps but what other factor might there be to make you want to pinch its little cheeks and utter "Isn't it cute." Yin and yang meet squarely in the middle. You'd be wise not to tune out after the opening stanza because you'd make the mistake you've entered brass knuckles territory when in fact some jocularity can be found. I'm not sure what this video's theme is based on but I sense a James Bond villain attitude underlying the humor. Tops on my list of instrumental aesthetic is a well placed synthesizer. Miike Snow proves it masters the most jovial of high notes but is sure to shuffle in the foreboding deeper registers in the way a diver bounces on the edge of his board before taking the plunge. Miike Snow has been around since 2007 and that cohesive juice serves them well. Genghis Khan would be proud. The song bearing his name possesses plenty of muscle.