Little Dragon Delivers A Trippy Experience In "Season High"

Swedish electronic pop band Little Dragon has a thing for making some fun sounds. That's no different on their latest album, which is chocked full of some groovy energy. Little Dragon delivers a trippy experience in Season High, their fifth album.

The first thing about Season High that you need to know is that this album is pretty diverse. There's moments of quiet beauty and moments of energy. It all starts on a pretty eclectic note with 'Celebrate,' a dinky song with some pretty mental guitar at the end. The energy is present throughout the record in various spots, such as the funky, punchy synths of 'Push' near the end of the record.

Season High has a bunch of pretty moments with it, as well. The track 'The Pop Life' is almost symphonic in nature, its synths sounding as if they were coming from a string instrument (while still maintaining their electronic sound). 'Butterflies,' a six minute slow-burner, starts off very beautifully with a slightly darker sound and spiraling synths. As it slowly moves along, it slowly loses its wings and becomes more and more barren, becoming a spacey track by the end as it slowly fades out. The same is true of closing track 'Gravity,' though as it fades out, some massive, roaring synth comes in to offer a pretty glaring sound.

For all it has, Little Dragon seem to have delivered a relatively uninteresting record. There's a lack of continuity within it; when the energy is there, it's followed by something really slow, and after the slowness peters out, something vaguely energetic shows up in its place. Season High doesn't really know what kind of record it wants to be. There's great bits and pieces here and there, but nothing that really comes together to make a great song.

Little Dragon's new album is a trippy synthpop experience, Season High being full of different ideas. There's not really a sense of cohesiveness in the record, so nothing really stands out as a fantastic track, but nothing's too bad, either. It's a record you can definitely groove with, but not one you'll find yourself coming back to too often.

Favorite Track: Celebrate

Least Favorite Track: Butterflies

Rating: 69 / 100

Buy or listen to Season High here: